What We Learned About Programs Serving Disadvantaged Noncustodial Parents

In 2018, 27 percent of all children under 21 years old in the United States lived apart from a parent, often a father which is referred to as a noncustodial parent by the child support program. Research consistently shows that these parents are a heterogeneous group, some of whom do not provide financial support to their children because they lack steady employment. But, relatively little research has examined whether programs that offer employment services and other supportive services to disadvantaged noncustodial parents can increase their earnings, parental engagement, and child support payments.

The three recently completed federal demonstrations summarized in this brief are:

• Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD);
• Parents and Children Together (PACT), and;
• Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED);

All three demonstrations were designed to increase the earnings of disadvantaged noncustodial parents and improve the well-being of their children. As such, all three demonstrations provided employment services. One provided participants with up to 4 months of subsidized employment (ETJD); the other two provided less intensive employment services, which included job search, job readiness, and job development. All three demonstrations provided enhanced child support services, which included order modification if needed. Two demonstrations included parenting workshops in all sites; the third demonstration included parenting workshops in two of its four sites (ETJD).

The three program models delivered positive impacts on noncustodial parent employment, earnings, child support payments, and parenting, but had no impact on the amount of child support paid. The key impact findings from these three demonstrations include the following:

1. All three demonstrations saw an increase in earnings as measured by quarterly earnings records during the final 12-month follow-up period, two of which were statistically significant.

• ETJD increased earnings by 13%;
• PACT increased earnings by 6%; and
• CSPED increased earnings by 4%.

2. All three demonstrations saw an increase in the likelihood of working as measured by quarterly earnings records, two of which were statistically significant. ETJD and PACT examined the likelihood of working in the final 12-month follow-up period; CSPED examined the likelihood of working in the final 24-month follow-up period.

• ETJD increased the likelihood of working by 7%;
• PACT increased the likelihood of working by 3%; and
• CSPED increased the likelihood of working by 3%.

3. Two of the demonstrations examined child support payments (ETJD and CSPED). Neither study found a statistically significant impact of the program on the amount of child support paid.

4. All three demonstrations examined the percent of parents who had any contact with their children during the final 12-month follow-up period. The two demonstrations that included parenting services in all sites saw a significant increase in the percent of parents who had any contact with their children (PACT and CSPED). ETJD, which did not include parenting services in all sites, saw a significant decrease in the percent of parents who had any contact with their children.

• ETJD decreased parent-child contact by 5%;
• PACT increased parent-child contact by 3%; and
• CSPED increased parent-child contact by 3%.

The report author noted that offering order modification services, which tends to reduce child support payments, appears to have worked at cross-purposes to the employment services, which aimed to increase child support payments. The author recommended that future evaluations of employment services for disadvantaged noncustodial parents will want to tease out the effects of order modification on the relationship between employment and child support payments.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2020
• Author(s): Elaine Sorensen
• Funding Source: Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies