Almost half had multiple open IV-D cases on which they owed support. These ranged from two to twelve cases.

Many were recurrently on public assistance or SSI. Over 30 percent of treatment group parents received grants part of the project period. Many have histories of mental or physical illness or substance abuse.

Many have correction records. At least 12.2% of treatment group parents were incarcerated at least part of the project period. At least 30.6% have Washington State correction records.

While 26% of the treatment group did not have any of the barriers listed above, 30% had multiple barriers.

These barriers were found among all types of IV-D cases, ranging from 66.8% of the non-assistance sample cases, to 77.1% of current assistance, and 84.1% of assigned arrears-only cases.

Overall, the Special Collections Unit produced higher payment outcomes.

The difference in proportion making a payment (treatment 34.1%; control group 30.2%) was statistically highly significant.

The treatment group contributed 52.2% of total amount collected, compared to 47.8% for the control group.

Excluding automated matches, the treatment group contributed 54.6%, compared to the control group's 45.5%.

For NCPs with multiple cases, payment to all their cases (sample and non-sample) was counted. Treatment group NCPs paid 14.6%, and were more likely to pay than the control group parents. Both differences were statistically significant.

The most striking improvement was on assigned arrears-only cases. The treatment group paid 1.7 times as much as the control group, including all payments, and paid 2.7 times as much when IRS offsets and other automated payments were excluded.

The Special Collection Unit did not make a difference in collections on current assistance cases, despite extra follow-up on these cases. Yet other types of cases, such as assigned arrears only, also showed a high proportion of barriers. Noncustodial parents in current assistance cases may have fewer financial and educational resources. The absence of a pass-through program in Washington State may discourage NCPs from paying, or contribute to unreported direct payments to families.

Separately from this project, the DCS had begun an experiment with referring very delinquent assigned arrears-only cases to a private collection agency. With some limitations, research staff were able to make a three-way comparison of collections on these cases, using the treatment group, control group, and private collection agency (PCA) results. On every measure, treatment group outcomes were much better than private collection outcomes, even though PCA referrals had been pre-screened to remove NCP's with barriers.

NCPs with barriers to collection : This population requires working cooperatively with agencies that help adults with particular problems, such as Welfare to Work (WtW) cooperative programs and interagency projects assisting incarcerated NCPs.

NCPs requiring aggressive locate and collection work : Delinquent cases without identified barriers or active champions can be allocated to this unit. Examples of such cases are assigned arrears-only cases and nonassistance cases with and without assigned arrears.

Screening can help the agency to identify NCPs whose orders may need modification before huge debts accumulate.

After project completion, DCS developed a brochure directed to the needs of incarcerated NCPs and a brochure for NCPs receiving public assistance. These are distributed in prisons and in community service offices. The brochures encourage parents to contact DCS before large debts accumulate.

Quality control is difficult when neither the collection staff nor the supervisor knows what part of the caseload is currently workable. If barriers are identified and periodic reports are kept and updated, staff can concentrate their efforts more efficiently.