Final Implementation Findings from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) Evaluation

January 2019
CSPED-Implementation-Final
Link to CSPED-Final-Implementation-Report-2019-Compliant (PDF)
Link to CSPED-Final-Implementation-ExecSum-2019 (PDF)

The final implementation report on the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) was released on January 15, 2019. It reflects demonstration activities that commenced in fall 2012, when the eight child support agencies competitively awarded grants by OCSE to participate in CSPED began a one-year planning period, and concluded with the end of the demonstration period in September 2017.

Grantees designated 18 implementation sites, ranging from one to five counties per grantee. Grantees enrolled participants in the demonstration over a three year period, from October 2013 through September 2016. Half of the demonstration’s 10,161 enrollees were randomly assigned to receive CSPED services, including enhanced child support services, employment assistance, parenting education delivered in a peer-supported format and case management. Half were assigned to a control group and did not receive extra services. On average, participants assigned to the extra services group received about 22 hours of services.

As the report describes, throughout the demonstration, CSPED grantees and their partners grappled with a complex array of challenges. These included reorienting child support staff and systems toward helping low-income noncustodial parents obtain employment; recruiting noncustodial parents to enroll in CSPED; keeping participants engaged in services; addressing participants’ barriers to employment; establishing partnerships and meshing different organizational cultures; and helping participants with parenting time issues.

The successes and challenges experienced by CSPED grantees offer important insights into strategies from which future programs serving similar populations can learn, adapt, and innovate. These include investing in strong partnerships and communication systems; drawing on strong leaders with a commitment to facilitating a cultural shift towards a customer-oriented approach within child support agencies; staffing programs with employees who support CSPED’s goals, and hiring and retaining a sufficient number of staff to manage large and challenging caseloads; developing services that take into account the substantial barriers to employment faced by the target population; and designing services to promote sustained participant engagement.

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