Father Involvement

New York state implemented a pilot employment program from 2006 to 2009 for parents behind in their child support. These pilot programs, part of the Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative, provided employment-oriented services, fatherhood/parenting workshops, case management, and other support services to nearly 4,000 parents behind in their child support in four New York communities. Our evaluation shows that these programs successfully helped participants find work, increase their earnings, and pay more child support. These gains continued for at least a year after enrollment, the length of time participant outcomes were followed.

New York launched a pilot employment program to help parents behind in their child support in four communities between 2006 and 2009. The program was part of the state's Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. Our evaluation found that the program's combination of employment assistance, case management, and other support services substantially increased the earnings and child support payments of disadvantaged parents who were not meeting their child support obligations.

In 2006, New York became the first state to enact a new earned income tax credit for low-income parents who pay their child support in full. The credit is designed to keep parents from falling too deeply into poverty if they pay their child support in full and to encourage low-income noncustodial parents to work and pay their child support. During its first year, only 5,280 noncustodial parents received the tax credit, costing just over $2 million. This report identifies three reasons the take-up rate was so low and offers recommendations on how to increase participation in the future.

New York conducted a three-year pilot project (2006-2009) in five locations to help unemployed parents without custody of their children find work called the Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. This report describes the implementation of this initiative and discusses challenges encountered and lessons learned. While all programs used a case management model to deliver employment and supportive services, the intensity of those services, the linkages to the child support program, the recruitment strategies, and the organizational structure of the programs varied. Despite these variations, programs successfully recruited and served a large number of participants, avoiding some of the challenges experienced by earlier fatherhood programs.

Many parents without custody of their children work and pay their full child support despite their meager incomes. In 2006, the New York State Legislature enacted a new tax credit to help these parents make ends meet as they pay their child support in full. Although the tax credit was successfully implemented in 2006, only 5,280 noncustodial parents received the tax credit that year. This report identifies three reasons for this result. It also describes how the law was implemented and the challenges that were encountered during implementation. It concludes by examining who might be motivated by the tax credit to pay their full child support.