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Innovative Re-entry Programs
CPR is working with child support and correctional agencies in Colorado,
Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas. The projects are cutting-edge
services designed to help ex-offenders work and meet their family responsibilities, including child support obligations, after their release from prison.
For more information see A
Conversation with Jessica Pearson and Esther Griswold: Incarcerated
Parents and Child Support. Policy
and Practice, December 2002.
CPR
collaborated with the Committee of Children of Incarcerated Parents, on
the preparation and printing of a Handbook for Incarcerated
Parents. The handbook describes incarcerated parents' legal rights and responsibilities
in the areas of child support and child custody, and offers some
practical advice. A copy of the Handbook is available in PDF.
Available
on line from the Colorado Child Welfare Program Information web
page.
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Ongoing
Work For the Office of Child Support Enforcement.
The Center for Policy Research, along with Policy Studies Inc. was selected to be one of four vendors to provide research, counseling and training services to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement on an expedited basis. This five year Research and Program Improvement contract positions CPR to perform work aimed at helping federal and state officials achieve their child support improvement goals.
Work currently underway examines
 | State programs to promote access and visitation,
and the impact of such programs on child support payment, access,
and child adjustment. |
| Responsive state and local policies for setting and
enforcing child support obligations for low income parents. |
| Planning and conducting conferences dealing with the challenges of child support enforcement
in large, urban, diverse settings. |
| Assisting the most populous states with information
collection and data analysis related to child support arrears
balances. |
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| Responsible
Fatherhood
CPR,
along with PSI,  recently
completed a multi-site evaluation of Responsible Fatherhood Projects. The research involved the collection and analysis
of pre and post program information on 1,674 noncustodial fathers. These
fathers participated in responsible fatherhood programs in eight states
funded by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement where they
received assistance with employment, child support, parenting, access
and visitation and parenting. Conducted during 1998-2002, the evaluation
relied on data drawn at each site from records maintained by clients and
program staff, telephone interviews with program participants,
administrative records maintained by state child support agencies, and
wage reports filed by employers and maintained by Departments of Labor
and Employment.
The
evaluation includes a qualitative component (See
OCSE
Responsible Fatherhood Programs: Early Implementation Lessons Available
in HTML) and
a forthcoming quantitative report that assesses program outcomes dealing
with employment and earnings, parent-child contact, and child support
payments. |
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Dependency
Mediation
CPR
is currently working with Louisiana and the District of Columbia on
evaluations of new dependency mediation programs. The Louisiana
research is taking place in Jefferson and Orleans Parishes, where the
court now refers abuse and neglect cases to specially trained mediators
to develop a treatment plan and deal with compliance problems. The
Washington, D.C. project deals with adoption cases, and provides
prospective adoptive parents and biological parents with an opportunity
to work out a plan for permanent custody. This plan may involve
continued contact between the biological parent and child, and the
evaluation will address the types of open adoption clauses that are
agreed upon, and will follow cases over time to discover what happens to
the plan. |
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