ERIC Number: ED601162
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Sep
Pages: 16
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Better Resolution: Reaching Child Support Agreements between Parents in Vermont
Kusayeva, Yana; Baird, Peter; Timm, Jonathan
MDRC
In the state of Vermont, the child support program is judicial, which means that the court holds the authority to establish and modify child support orders. When the program needs to establish legal parentage, establish a new child support order, or modify an existing order, it invites parents to attend a Case Manager Conference, held at the courthouse and facilitated by a court staff member. A staff member from the Vermont Office of Child Support (OCS) also attends to provide background information on the case, but does not facilitate the conference. The Behavioral Interventions for Child Support Services (BICS) team worked with OCS to design an intervention that would achieve two goals: (1) to increase parent participation in the establishment process (for both parentage and new orders) and the order modification process; and (2) to increase the number of cases where the parents reach agreement on at least one important issue outside of court. To test the effectiveness of the intervention, 947 cases were randomly assigned either to a group that received the intervention or to a control group whose cases were handled according to the business-as-usual practices. The study found that parents in the intervention group were more likely to attend and had better meeting outcomes than parents in the control group. In addition, the average length of time between the initiating action (a case opening or a modification request) and stipulation at the targeted meeting was 70 days shorter for parents who reached stipulation in the intervention group than for similar parents in the control group, which represents a 72.9 percent decrease. This document provides the background on the existing process, the intervention's design, the results of the test, the implementation of the intervention, and the lessons this study offers for the child support community. [This report was written with Samuel Diaz.]
Descriptors: Children, Financial Support, Parents, Intervention, Meetings, Parent Participation, Program Effectiveness, Program Implementation
MDRC. 16 East 34th Street 19th Floor, New York, NY 10016-4326. Tel: 212-532-3200; Fax: 212-684-0832; e-mail: publications@mdrc.org; Web site: http://www.mdrc.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) (DHHS/ACF)
Authoring Institution: MDRC, Center for Applied Behavioral Science (CABS); MEF Associates; Center for Policy Research (CPR)
Identifiers - Location: Vermont
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A