Child Support Policy Research Projects, 2005–2007
Projects, September 2005–December 2007
Under this research agreement between IRP and the Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development, there are 14 primary projects.
Reports will be posted upon completion.
- Court Record Data (CRD) Collection
- The Racine Debt Reduction Project, “Families Forward”
- Review of Current Guidelines
- Guidelines and Complicated Families
- Incarcerated Payers
- Costs of Raising Children
- Health Orders: Implementation and Data Reports on New Procedures
- Use of Shared Physical Placement Guidelines in Divorce Cases
- Use of Child Care Benefits by Parents with High Child Support Receipts
- Orders and Payments over Long Periods
- Review of Shared Placement Guidelines in Other States
- Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment Update
- Stability of Child Support Orders, Payments, and Receipts
- Child Support and Food Insecurity/Hunger
1. Court Record Data (CRD) Collection
IRP will collect a new cohort of paternity and divorce cases (Cohort 24),
consisting of a random selection of cases petitioning for paternity establishment,
the setting of child support or child placement in voluntary acknowledgment
paternity cases, and divorce cases in the period from July 2003 through June
2004. IRP will also update, through 2006, all divorce and paternity cases
in Cohort 21.
Through visits to counties, court record history data not currently recorded
in the KIDS data system will be collected. The collected data will include
information on legal custody and physical placement, visitation, and details
concerning the specific provisions of each order (for example, cost of
living adjustments, educational and asset trust funds, and child care and
child physical placement provisions). Other information collected will
include records of deviations from the use of the guidelines and information
on returns to court for purposes relating to child placement, child support
orders, revision or enforcement of child support, or referral for criminal
proceedings for the nonpayment of child support.
The data collected will be merged with the KIDS database for information
on payment history and arrearages. Additional information will be matched
to these cases, including wage record information from Unemployment Insurance
(UI) data, income information from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue,
and W-2, Food Stamp, and Medicaid benefit information from CARES.
2. The Racine Debt Reduction Project, “Families Forward”
This project continues analysis of the pilot demonstration debt reduction
experiment, Families Forward, currently underway in Racine
County. The experimental evaluation of the program will involve at least
two years of data collection from administrative data bases, including
KIDS, CARES, and the UI system.
The project will examine administrative data to construct two key measures
of the impact of the project: change in child support debt and change in
child support payments. The project will also collect information from
parents (both participants and nonparticipants) concerning their perceptions
and understanding of the program. Beyond monetary impacts, it is expected
that the program might have effects on family relationships and other dimensions
of individual and family well-being.
Wisconsin is the first state to include CP-owed arrears in a debt reduction
project, and is also conducting the experiment under rigorous experimental
design standards. Researchers expect to be able to clearly identify impacts
on child support payments and debt reduction, and on other program impacts
and to make recommendations regarding ways to improve the program.
3. Review of Current Guidelines
A. Extent of Guidelines Compliance in New Orders
The review will focus particularly on comparing compliance before January
1, 2004, with compliance after that date, when new guidelines took effect,
focusing on cases with sole placement (shared physical placement issues
are discussed under Project 8). Three groups of such cases
will be examined: those with low and high incomes that would be subject
to a change in the guidelines, and those with mid-range incomes who would
probably have been unaffected by the change in the guidelines.
B. Effect of New Guidelines on Payments of Orders
This research will analyze the impact of the child support guideline
changes that went into effect January 1, 2004, on payment of child support
orders established since that time. The research will build upon the analysis
completed under 3A, above, comparing the actual support paid to the amount
due, and will use KIDS and the UI Wage Record data to supplement income
and earnings information available in the CRD data for cohorts 23 and 24.
4. Guidelines and Complicated Families
A. Review of Policies in Other States
This report will describe alternative policies used in other states concerning
child support orders for complicated families, those in which one or both
parents have had children with multiple partners. The information, collected
through interviews with state officials, will be used in 4B, below, to
analyze the implications of alternative policies through a simulation model
that estimates the effect of current and potential alternative policies
for families in Wisconsin.
Substantial divorce and remarriage and growing rates of nonmarital fertility
have contributed to a higher incidence of multiple-partner fertility, which,
especially among low-income families, is sufficiently common to warrant
careful policy development and analysis.
Report: Emma Caspar, Review
of Child Support Policies for Multiple Family Obligations: Five Case
Studies. Report to the Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support. Institute
for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison, September
2006.
B. Wisconsin Simulation
This report will analyze the implications of alternative policies using
a simulation model to estimate the effect of current and potential alternative
policies for families in Wisconsin.
These two projects will together provide information on
a range of policy options, advantages and disadvantages reported by states
with experience implementing these policies, and estimates of the effects
on families in Wisconsin.
Report: Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer, Alternative
Approaches to Child Support Policy in the Context of Multiple-Partner
Fertility. Report to the Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support. Institute
for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison, December
2006.
5. Incarcerated Payers
A. Review of Policies in Other States
This report will document other states’ treatment of child support
obligations of noncustodial parents while they are incarcerated and following
their release. It will include a review of judicial decisions relevant
to prevailing policy, given the role that the courts play in applying state
child support guidelines, and of the intended and, to the extent possible,
actual effects of current policy.
This report will help to inform the future direction of policy in Wisconsin
by illuminating policies and practices already being pursued in other parts
of the country and by demonstrating how these policies and practices can
be designed to affect multiple outcomes.
Report: Jennifer L. Noyes, Review
of Child Support Policies for Incarcerated Payers. Report to the Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support. Institute
for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison, December
2006.
B. Implementation of a Policy Change in Milwaukee County to Hold Orders in Abeyance
This report will provide the basis for an analysis of the effects of
recent policy innovations in Wisconsin on postincarceration child support
payment patterns. The analysis will attempt to identify the impact of suspending
initial orders for support when a payer is incarcerated.
If incarcerated parents are unable to pay substantial child support,
arrears may develop during their incarceration. These arrears may discourage
employment in the formal sector and child support compliance. This report
will provide the necessary implementation analysis and data collection
to allow a later evaluation of the impact of a key policy option—holding
orders in abeyance during incarceration.
6. Costs of Raising Children
This report will update previous papers that reviewed the literature
on the cost of raising children, up to and including those costs associated
with the transition to adulthood. As with any literature review, data included
will depend on the extent to which research in this field has been reported.
The report will provide evidence on the state of research concerning
the costs of children and intrafamily allocation of resources up through
young adulthood, and can be used to help guide discussions of potential
changes in Wisconsin’s guidelines. The review of expenditures during
the transition to adulthood will provide context for the discussion of
asset accounts and college savings in 3A.
Report: Ingrid Rothe and Lawrence M. Berger, Estimating
the Costs of Children: Theoretical Considerations Related to Transitions
to Adulthood and the Valuation of Parental Time for Developing Child
Support Guidelines. Report
to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support.
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
April 2007.
7. Health Orders: Implementation and Data Reports on New Procedures
In October 2005, Wisconsin Bureau of Child Support began a new procedure
of matching monthly enrollment tapes from health insurance companies licensed
in Wisconsin with parents and children in KIDS. If a parent has health
insurance that could cover a noncustodial child but does not do so, the
employer will be required to add the child to the parent’s policy,
so long as the cost of that does not exceed 5 percent of the parent’s
gross monthly earnings from that employer. The noncustodial parent and
custodial parent will each be notified and given a chance to appeal the
order. IRP will undertake an implementation report that should provide
useful material on the goals that were sought, difficulties that had to
be overcome, etc.
A second report will provide descriptive data on the number of children
added to the health insurance policies of noncustodial parents and how
many of those children had previously been on Medicaid. An estimate of
Medicaid savings and increased insurance coverage as a result of this process
should provide useful context.
8. Use of Shared Physical Placement Guidelines in Divorce Cases
IRP will analyze the effects of the January 2004 change in Wisconsin
child support guidelines for shared physical placement cases.
Three main topics will be addressed:
- How often and accurately are the new shared placement guidelines being
used?
- What are the changes in the percentage of shared placement cases,
and to what extent are any changes consistent with changes in the financial
incentives created by the new guidelines?
- Are there changes in litigation between parents and are any changes
consistent with changes in the financial incentives created by the new
guidelines?
From 1995 through 2003 shared placement cases in Wisconsin were subject
to a unique child support guideline and were characterized by high rates
of equal shared placement and low rates of child support orders. On January
1, 2004, the child support guideline was changed, such that child support
orders would be increased in equal shared placement cases and substantially
lowered in unequal shared placement cases. Examination of divorce cases
in Cohort 23 (before the change) and Cohort 24 (after the change) will
give the first indication of whether and how well the new child support
guidelines are being adopted and might indicate whether a change in child
support guidelines substantially affects parental decision-making and behavior
during a divorce.
Report: Patricia Brown and Maria Cancian, Wisconsin's
2004 Shared-Physical-Placement Guidelines: Their Use and Implications in
Divorce Cases. Report
to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support.
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
March 2007.
9. Use of Child Care Benefits by Parents with High Child
Support Receipts
This report will assess the extent to which families receiving child
care benefits would be disqualified were child support income considered
in calculating eligibility and benefit levels in the Wisconsin Shares program.
The report will:
- Examine income levels of Wisconsin Shares participants from March
2000 through 2005. (March 2000 coincided with a change in the policies
related to financial eligibility for child care benefits in Wisconsin).
- Compare income levels of Wisconsin Shares participants if child and
family support income were included in the income calculation and compare
the actual caseload with the potential caseload if child and family support
were not disregarded.
Discuss the characteristics of cases that would no longer be eligible
for child care subsidies if child and family support income were not disregarded.
These analyses will use data from the CARES data system, matched with
the KIDS child support data system. The study should help explain the
extent to which making a change in the child support disregard policy
for child care subsidies would affect eligibility for those subsidies.
Reports:
Emma Capsar and Steven T. Cook, Eligibility
for Child Care Subsidies of Parents with Child Support Income. Report
to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support.
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
November 2006.
Steven T. Cook, Child
Support Income and Copayments in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy
Program. Report
to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child
Support. Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
March 2007.
10. Orders and Payments over Long Periods
An earlier report examining the potential impact of COLAs included preliminary
calculations of what happened to child support orders in the four years
after they were initially established. That analysis suggested that orders
change very little for a high proportion of initially mid-range income
payers, while incomes continued to rise. This report will extend that analysis
to follow up orders over a period of 7–8 years after an initial order
was established.
Among other investigations, researchers will analyze payments over the
period and examine how orders and payments age over time in comparison
to the Consumer Price Index. The analyses for this research will use administrative
data from the CRD, KIDS, and the UI Wage Record.
Concern has been raised that, as orders age, their relationship to
the state’s guidelines or to the needs of the child and the resources
of the parents become more attenuated. This report will quantify the
extent to which orders are modified over time and whether orders and
payments keep pace with increases in the Consumer Price Index.
11. Review of Shared Placement Guidelines in Other States
In this report IRP will examine the most current child support guidelines
used in other states in shared placement cases. This study will include
time-share threshold levels for defining shared placement, formulas used
to calculate child support, factors used in those formulas, and the consideration
of “variable costs” such as medical, educational, and child
care expenses.
Eight to ten of the more common or most promising formulas will then
be applied to a variety of common and uncommon parental income and time-share
situations to compare their effect on equity issues: for example, which
parent is the child support obligor, what is the level of child support
obligation, and whether “cliff effects” in the formula outcomes
would provide incentives for parents to litigate or would generate substantial
financial inequities among obligors.
Trends in the last decade have been toward legislation favoring shared
physical placement, and the American Law Institute has proposed a custody
rule supporting shared placement. It is an appropriate time, therefore,
to investigate guidelines that other states are developing in response
to the fact that shared custody arrangements are becoming much more common
nationally.
Report: Patricia Brown and Tonya Brito, Characteristics
of Shared-Placement Child Support Formulas Used in the Fifty States.
Report to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of
Child Support. Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
March 2007.
12. Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment Update
IRP will update a 2003 report on the implications of voluntary paternity
acknowledgment for children born in calendar years 2000 and 2001. Researchers
will examine the longer-term implications of voluntary paternity establishment
on child support orders, child support payments, and financial security
of children over a 5–7-year period, comparing voluntary acknowledgment
with adjudicated cases. They will also compare longer-term physical placement
outcomes for voluntary and nonvoluntary paternity children. The primary
data sources for this report will be KIDS, and information from the three
most recent CRD cohorts. These cases will be merged with CARES for receipt
of government assistance, and UI wage record data for parental employment
and income information.
Voluntary paternity acknowledgement has been advocated as a means of
promoting paternal involvement in the lives of nonmarital children, both
for their children’s financial security and for other social benefits.
These analyses will allow us to estimate, in the longer term, the degree
to which voluntary paternity acknowledgment has led to greater compliance
with child support orders and greater participation in children’s
lives as they age, through physical placement arrangements.
Report: Patricia R. Brown and Steven T. Cook, A
Decade of Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment in Wisconsin: 1997–2007.
Report to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of
Child Support. Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
May 2008. [PowerPoint Presentation]
13. Stability of Child Support Orders, Payments, and Receipts
A. Stability of Orders as Noncustodial Parent Income Changes
This report will examine changes in earnings in a recent cohort of noncustodial
fathers, focusing on the extent to which orders and payments change when
earnings change. The analysis provides the basis for the
companion analysis of the impact of changes in noncustodial fathers’ orders
and payments on the stability of custodial mothers’ incomes (in Project
13B). The report includes couples who had their first child support order
in 2000 and examine patterns over the next 4 years.
Report: Yoonsook Ha, Daniel R. Meyer, and Maria Cancian, The
Stability of Child Support Orders. Report to the Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support. Institute
for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison, December
2006.
B. Stability of Custodial Parent Income as Orders/Payments Change
This project focuses on the custodial mothers who were partnered with
the fathers examined in Project 13A. The project will analyze the extent to
which the order and payment changes (or lack of changes) documented in
the first part result in more or less instability of income for the mother.
Stable child support orders and payments may be particularly valuable
for custodial parent families. However, stable obligations in the face
of substantial income changes may undercut the goal that noncustodial parents
share a stable proportion of their resources, since stable orders
may leave some noncustodial parents paying substantially more or less than
what would be expected given current income.
Report: Yoonsook Ha, Maria Cancian, and Daniel R. Meyer, The
Regularity of Child Support and Its Contribution to the Regularity of
Income. Report
to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Bureau of Child Support.
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
April 2007.
14. Child Support and Food Insecurity/Hunger
Research consistently finds that food insecurity is higher among single-mother
households compared to other household types, even after controlling for
income and other risk factors. In Wisconsin, the rate of food insecurity
(measured by standard survey questions) among single-mother households
is 33 percent, compared to 7 percent among married couples with children.
This research will examine whether child support reduces the risk of food
insecurity and hunger among single-mother families. The report will use
national data from the Current Population Survey and/or the National Survey
of America’s Families. Both sources include measures of food security
status as well as child support receipts.
This research will contribute to our understanding of the benefits to
single-mother households that arise when the child support system is effective
in transferring larger amounts of support. Although considerable attention
has been paid to the impact of child support on income and poverty, its
impact on food insecurity and other forms of material hardship is not well
understood.
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