Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project August 2013 Updated August 2015 Jessica Pearson, Ph.D. Rasa Kaunelis, M.A. 1570 Emerson St Denver, CO 80218 Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns Description: The Contractor shall prepare and present a briefing for OCSE leadership and staff and other This is the policy memo prepared by the Center for federal officials reporting the outcomes of this Policy Research under Contract No. project, as summarized in the final report and GS10F04165/HHSSP233201100400G with the policy memo. This briefing shall take place at Office of Child Support Enforcement, U.S. OCSE offices in Washington, D.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The report and briefing presents the views and Under the contract, the Contractor shall prepare a opinions of the Contractors and does not policy memo to the COTR describing the policy necessarily represent the views, positions, nor implications gleaned from this study, identifying policies of the Department of Health and Human implementation questions and alternatives related to the FY2012 legislative proposal, analyzing current Services or its agencies. practices in family violence safeguards, and providing expertise on next steps for identifying and developing family violence safeguards that need to be included in processes to establish parenting time orders. If requested by the COTR, the Contractor shall revise the memo until it is approved as final. The target audience for this memo is federal policy makers, particularly OCSE staff and leadership. Center for POLICY RESEARCH Page 1 Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns In September 2014, Congress enacted the Preventing Research shows that the receipt of child support Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, is extremely beneficial for children in single- which includes a Sense of Congress Provision parent homes; and (Section 303) that establishes the incorporation of Research shows that absent intimate partner parenting time with strong family violence safeguards violence (IPV), father-child in new child support orders as an “important goal.” contact is beneficial to “It’s hard to imagine This represents a more modest version of the Obama child well-being. not addressing administration’s 2012-2015 budget proposals, the There is also strong evidence parenting time. You most recent of which called for an allocation of $448 that IPV is particularly high for have these young million over 10 years to require all “states to establish low-income populations, many couples who come in access and visitation responsibilities in all initial child of whom are likely to be among and they are support orders, just as custody arrangements are the unmarried parents served concerned with all of typically settled at the same time divorces are by the child support agency and the small details and finalized.” Unlike the Obama budget proposal, couples who have experienced they have no parenting Public Law 113-183 keeps the establishment of IPV require individualistic plan in place. They parenting time a voluntary activity with no new approaches to developing safe need a structured funding but urges states to coordinate with their State parenting plans. As a result, the parenting plan where Access and Visitation (AV) grant programs and use president’s budget initiative parenting time is child support incentive funds among other existing also mandates that states outlined, not where it resources. implement IPV safeguards as just says reasonable. they address parenting time. The details need to be Both the new law and President Obama’s budget spelled out.” proposals reflect the fact that parents of children OCSE has funded some born out of wedlock typically receive child support demonstration and evaluation – Supervised Parenting orders that do not simultaneously address parenting projects and grants in the area Time Provider, of parenting, and some states Oakland County, time. As a result, unwed parents with child support Michigan use funding available through cases in most states must pursue a separate legal action, often in a different court, and pay a substantial the State Access and Visitation filing fee to receive parenting time with their children. (AV) Program to support parenting time services for unmarried parents in the Although child support and parenting time are legally child support program. However, only a handful of distinct issues, they are practically connected: jurisdictions have mechanisms to incorporate Thirty-six states have child support guidelines parenting time agreements into initial child support that consider the amount of time that a child orders routinely, and most of these programs have spends with the noncustodial parent in the been small-scale rather than large, statewide calculation of a child support order level; initiatives. To generate more informed activity in this Research shows that parents with legal visitation area, OCSE contracted with the Center for Policy pay more support, as do those who get help Research (CPR) of Denver, Colorado, to conduct the establishing parenting time orders and addressing Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders their visitation problems; project. The purpose of the project was to: Center for POLICY RESEARCH Page 2 Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns Synthesize relevant research on access and With input from OCSE, CPR conducted site visits to visitation, family violence, and child support; five jurisdictions that address the establishment of Identify and describe promising state access and parenting time using different approaches. Each two- visitation practices that have the potential to day site visit involved interviews and focus groups serve as alternative models for establishing with a wide range of child support, parenting time, parenting time orders for the child support and domestic violence professionals. Site visits were population; conducted in: Document how family violence safeguards are addressed in alternative approaches; and The State of Texas; Convene experts in domestic violence, child The State of Oregon; support, and parenting time to discuss family Cuyahoga County, Ohio; violence safeguards, screening models, and other Oakland County, Michigan; and ways to keep parents and children safe while DuPage County, Illinois. developing parenting plans for the child support The following highlights the approaches that these population. jurisdictions use to establish parenting time in new To identify ways child support agencies incorporate child support orders and address IPV. parenting time agreements into initial child support order, CPR pursued the following strategies: Standard Parenting Time Presumption Standard visitation presumptions are used in Texas Telephone conversations with administrators of and some Michigan counties. Standard visitation State Access and Visitation Grant Programs; presumptions provide a predictable baseline for Review of child support websites for 20 states parenting time, much like child support guidelines provide a predictable baseline for calculating child “Addressing parenting time is critical. The support, with the standard plan spelling out how the noncustodial parent is more likely to pay child child’s time will be divided between each parent support if he sees his children. Paying child during regular, vacation, and holiday time periods. support creates other positive outcomes, such as They are used automatically in the absence of an improved emotional outcomes for children.” alternative plan developed by the parents or the – Director of the Fatherhood Initiative, court. Cuyahoga County, Ohio The benefits of implementing standard visitation presumptions are that they: and jurisdictions for mention of parenting time May be implemented at the state level with or visitation; and legislation (as in Texas) or the local/county level Solicitation of site examples and with a local rule (similar to the counties in recommendations at a session that CPR Michigan). organized on parenting time in child support Assist a large number of families with virtually no cases at the Mid-Year Policy Forum for the cost or delay. In Texas, standard visitation plans National Child Support Enforcement are used in most of the 60,000 new child support Association on February 10, 2012. orders established by the Office of Attorney Center for POLICY RESEARCH Page 3 Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns General (OAG) and many of the Challenges to ensuring that victims 40,000 divorce decrees issued by the of IPV are able to make well-informed court each year. “There are issues with decisions about disclosure and receive addressing parenting Do not require parents to pursue a safe parenting time orders. time in court and child separate legal action or pay a filing support offices, but States and counties that use standard fee, because the visitation provision is [having parents] coming parenting time presumptions typically