Prepared by the American Institutes for Research. The purpose of this report is to provide early findings on the implementation of five State-initiated demonstrations designed to explore collaborations between child support enforcement, Head Start, and child care programs. At the time that information was gathered for this report, States were at the end of the first year or at the beginning of the second year of a three-year funding period. Early findings indicate that these demonstration grants have increased the willingness and ability of Head Start and child care staffs to collaborate with child support agencies. An important task remaining for the demonstrations is to find ways that child support staff can assist child care and Head Start staffs in increasing voluntary establishment of paternity and payment of support.
Critics say the proposals are a federal power grab, and set a dangerous precedent.
Nearly 1.4 million families benefited from these collections. The authors argue that progress for these families has been masked by a shift in the marital status composition of single mothers away from divorced and separated mothers toward never-married mothers. They also find that child support reforms and a strengthened child support enforcement program have led to significantly higher rates of child support receipt for single mothers once shifts in their marital status composition are taken into account. Specific child support enforcement tools have been more beneficial to certain subgroups of mothers than others. Although all of these children could have a child support order and receive the full amount that is owed, only about one in five do.