Brief
In fiscal year 2018, noncustodial parents were obligated to pay nearly $33.6 billion in current child support on behalf of the 15 million children served by the Title IV-D child support program. One-third of that, or $11 billion, was not collected. Unemployment is the leading reason for non-payment of child support by noncustodial parents. This brief will explore the opportunities at the state and federal levels to provide employment services to noncustodial parents and increase child support payments in the process.
Brief
Low-income families face significant challenges navigating both low-wage employment or education and training programs and also finding good-quality child care. Programs that intentionally combine services for parents and children can help families move toward economic security and create conditions that promote child and family well-being. Although these programs in general are not new (see Background), policymakers and program leaders are now experimenting with innovative approaches to combining services. Yet, most currently operating programs, sometimes called “two-generation” or “dual…
Reading to your children from an early age will help them become interested in reading – and children who enjoy reading tend to do better in school and have more employment opportunities as adults! Children often become interested in reading by watching and mimicking their parents or participating in child-parent reading routines. Reading and telling stories to your children is not just good for them, it’s fun for dads too. It provides a positive way to stay involved in your children’s lives and creates memories to share with them as they get older. (Author abstract)
This tip sheet is…
Webinar
Children who read well by third grade are more likely than their peers to experience academic success and economic stability as adults. They are also more likely to have parents who read to them. This webinar looked at ways in which fatherhood programs can help fathers improve their own literacy, encourage them to read to their children, and enhance outcomes for two generations (parents and their children).
The Office of Family Assistance, through the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC), provided this technical assistance webinar for all responsible fatherhood…
Brief
The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) convened a workgroup of experts in the field of fatherhood and father involvement to develop a research agenda that defines the state of the current research in this area, identifies extant gaps in this research, and generates suggestions for future research. The goal is for the workgroup's ideas to inform subsequent funding by the FRPN for evaluation and research projects that seek to enhance our collective understanding of the important role fathers play in the lives of their children and how programs and policies can strengthen this role…
Brief
This fact sheet suggests strategies for parents to teach their children about money management and how to be in control of their finances. Tips include modeling smart money decisions and how to guide children to also make smart money decisions. This publication also offers different options for how to teach children to manage their money well.Note: PDF version available.
Brief
This brief contributes to our knowledge of the challenges faced by children with incarcerated fathers by examining the effect of paternal incarceration on child homelessness. Specifically, it explores three mechanisms by which father incarceration may lead to child homelessness, including weakening family finances, limiting children's access to institutional and informal supports, and reducing mothers' capacities and capabilities. It also examines the extent to which this relationship is concentrated among black children and tests concerns of spuriousness, the possibility that both…
Part of a series of fact sheets that discuss how and why the child support program provides innovative services to families across six interrelated areas to assure that parents have the tools and resources they need to support their children and be positively involved in raising them, this fact sheet discusses the dependence of reliable child support payments upon noncustodial parents having stable income. The child support program can increase regular child support payments by helping noncustodial parents find and keep work, and connecting custodial and noncustodial parents to resources that…
