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Non-Legal Resources
Resources from Disciplines frequently interacting with the Child Support & Welfare systems.
IRS Disclosure Policy Guidance
The Child Support Disclosure Matrix of how federal tax information (FTI) may be used for purposes of Child Support Enforcement actions includes what information may be disclosed, to whom it may be disclosed and under which limitations and conditions.
Federal Poverty Thresholds and Guidelines
This information will help educate decision-makers about artificially low self-support reserve for non-custodial parents paying child support, and advocate for more financially sensible Child Support Guidelines. For example, the self-support reserve is intended to ensure that non-custodial parents can meet their own living needs, but at $748, South Carolina’s self-support reserve does not allow for this. Without changes to the Guidelines, many never-married, non-custodial parents will continue to fall behind, making them vulnerable to incarceration.
U.S. Department of Labor: Federal Wage Garnishments
Here, researchers can browse by topic, such as wages, break time for nursing mothers, child labor, employment of workers with disabilities, and more. Under wages, I found guides, fact sheets, and applicable laws on federal wage garnishments. This information will be helpful to see what information noncustodial parents receive when applying for employment, their requirements, and their rights.
U.S. Department of Agriculture: Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
In the most recent Expenditures on Children by Families report completed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between $12,350 and $13,900 for a child in a two-child, married-couple family in the middle-income group. However, we must remember that this is not the reality for poor, unmarried families. This information will first be helpful to advocate for states to adopt a full pass-through policy. It will also advocate for better financial assistance to low-income parents, to bridge the gap between what a noncustodial parent can afford to pay and what a custodial parent reasonably needs.
Non-legal Library Databases
Welfare Reform in Persistent Rural Poverty [Falvey Library at Villanova]
Kathleen Pickering, Mark H. Harvey, Gene F. Summers, and David Mushinski (2006)
Since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 was enacted, policy makers, agency administrators, community activists, and academics from a broad range of disciplines have debated and researched the implications of welfare reform in the United States. Most of the attention, however, has focused on urban rather than rural America. This eBook examines welfare participants who live in chronically poor rural areas of the United States where there are few job opportunities and poor systems of education, transportation, and child care.
When Boys Become Parents: Adolescent Fatherhood in America [Falvey Library at Villanova]
Mark Kiselica (2008)
In this informative book, Mark Kiselica draws on his many years of counseling teenage fathers to offer a compassionate look at the difficult life circumstances and the complicated hardships these young men experience.
Non-legal Journal Articles
Reforming Policy for Single-Parent Families to Reduce Child Poverty
Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer (2018)
Published by The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, this journal discusses how our child support system does not work well for lower-income families, especially unmarried couples. The journal explained that far too few children regularly receive substantial support and the system is sometimes counterproductive in encouraging parental responsibility. RSF is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal and all issues are free and easily accessible from the journal’s site.
Negotiating Race and Racial Inequality in Family Court
Tonya L. Brito, David J. Pate Jr., and Jia-Hui Stefanie Wong (2020)
Published by The Institute for Research on Poverty, this journal article addresses how race and racial inequality affect child support judicial proceedings for low-income litigants. Researchers examined cases where states pursue child support from low- and no-income noncustodial fathers, many of whom lack the financial resources to pay the support they owe and are unrepresented in the proceedings. IRP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison dedicated to studying poverty and economic inequality. IRC produces a number of resources including a child support research page which can be filtered by subtopic and their own podcast.
The New Welfare Trap: Case Managers, College Education, and TANF Policy
Fiona Pearson (2007)
Published by Sage Journals, this journal article discusses how after U.S. welfare was reformed in 1996, many states reduced their support of postsecondary education and instead emphasized work-first programs. As a result, many economically poor women are dissuaded from pursuing postsecondary degrees that have the potential of increasing their chances of achieving financial self-sufficiency.
