Child support is a critical income support program and has an important role in reducing child poverty. In January 2024, I was excited to join the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) for a national convening that focused on the child support program’s current ability and future potential to help address child poverty.
The convening had experts from many fields, including child support and child poverty researchers, state and local child support and antipoverty programs, different human services agencies, community organizations, tribal programs and organizations, and individuals who have lived experience with child support programs.
The convening offered several presentations each with a representative from a federal agency, a researcher or practitioner, and an individual with lived child support experience. Following the presentations, we transitioned into roundtable discussions where facilitators used human-centered design methods to engage, communicate, and focus on the three questions:
- What’s going on in child support: We discussed the root causes and effects of child support participation decline.
- What’s going on with programs and institutions that intersect with child support: We explored the key issues related to collaborating with government agencies and various institutions and how these partnerships can enhance participation in child support programs.
- What’s going on that’s new and innovative in child support and related programs: We focused on identifying resources to enhance child support participation. We also brainstormed strategies to improve the child support program.
Report and findings
ASPE released their brief from the national convening in October 2024, Factors that Impact the Child Support Program’s Role in Reducing Child Poverty: Convening Summary . It identified several key findings:
- Various factors were suggested that may contribute to current child support program participation trends, including difficulty navigating the program, negative perceptions, potential disruption of family dynamics, and not adequately meeting needs of low-income and diverse family structures.
- Partnerships with other programs were viewed as important factors to consider when addressing the child support program’s ability to tackle child poverty.
- Experts offered factors that can contribute to successful program partnerships, including alignment of goals and policies across partners, the ability to exchange data, and how partners can leverage and share resources.
- Several opportunities to improve how the child support program addresses child poverty were offered, including:
- Distributing all child support to the families on whose behalf it is collected
- Re-examining cooperation requirements
- Formally recognizing informal and in-kind child support contributions
- Providing access to services to establish parenting time orders
- Offering flexible, holistic services
- Providing staff training to enhance customer service and equity
I encourage you to read the entire report for more details. OCSS is committed to working with ASPE and others to identify ways the child support program can help reduce child poverty.
Tanguler Gray, Commissioner
This blog gives the commissioner a forum to communicate directly with child support professionals and other partners about relevant topics. The Commissioner’s Voice is reprinted from the November 2024 Child Support Report newsletter.