[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 44 (Thursday, March 5, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12925-12927]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-04543]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Request for Information; Innovative Approaches and Knowledge Gaps
Related to Enhancing Nonresident Parents' Ability To Support Their
Children Economically and Emotionally; Extension of Comment Period
AGENCY: Administration for Children and Families; HHS.
ACTION: Request for Public Comment.
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SUMMARY: Through this Request for Information (RFI), the Administration
for Children and Families (ACF), in the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), seeks to further the development of employment
programs for nonresident parents by soliciting information and
recommendations from a broad array of stakeholders in the public and
private sectors, including state, regional, tribal, and local areas.
The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence
Act) requires federal agencies to develop evidence-building plans to
identify and address policy questions relevant to programs, policies,
and regulations of the agency. In this vein, ACF will analyze
information collected from this RFI to continue developing a learning
and action agenda to better understand the effectiveness of employment
programs for nonresident parents.
DATES: The comment period for this RFI, originally published November
20, 2019 at 84 FR 64079, is extended. Send comments on or before March
30, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Submit questions, comments, and supplementary documents to
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Invitation to Comment: HHS invites comments
regarding the questions included in this notice. To ensure that your
comments are clearly stated, please identify the specific question, or
other section of this notice, that your comments address.
1.0 Background
A key responsibility of all parents is to economically support
their children, whether or not they live with them. Parents are better
able to fulfill this responsibility when they are working regularly.
While the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has
encouraged parents receiving government assistance (who are typically
custodial mothers) to pursue employment, increasing work among
nonresident parents (who are typically fathers and not receiving
assistance) remains a challenge. An analysis by the federal Office of
Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) estimates that in 2015, 13% of
noncustodial parents had been out of work for at least a year.
ACF recently issued three Information Memorandums to encourage
states to provide employment services to noncustodial parents. TANF-
ACF-IM-18-01 reminded states that they may use federal TANF funds and
state maintenance-of-effort funds to provide employment services to
noncustodial parents (please see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/resource/tanf-acf-im-2018-01the-use-of-tanf-funds-to-promote-employment-programs-for-noncustodial-parents). OCSE-ACF-IM-
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18-02 encouraged states to use IV-D incentive funds to promote
noncustodial parent work activities (please see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/use-of-iv-d-incentive-funds-for-ncp-work-activities). OCSE-ACF-IM-19-04 conveys that HHS is prepared to review
requests for demonstration waivers that would allow states and tribes
to fund employment programs for noncustodial parents, under section
1115 of the Social Security Act (please see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/availability-of-section-1115-waivers-to-fund-ncp-work-activities).
Child support programs typically refer to parents in the program
who live apart from their children and are expected to pay child
support as ``noncustodial parents.'' We use a broader term--nonresident
parents--to reflect ACF's interest in soliciting information about and
recommendations of employment programs that target all parents who live
apart from one or more of their children, regardless of their
participation in the child support program.
Prior research has found that employment programs for nonresident
parents can be successful at improving employment opportunities for
parents. OCSE sponsored the Child Support Noncustodial Parent
Employment Demonstration, which tested the effectiveness of child
support-led employment programs. The evaluation found that this program
increased the employment and earnings of noncustodial parents,
satisfaction with the child support program, and parent-child contact.
Other recent evidence is from the Parents and Children Together
Evaluation, which examined the effectiveness of four Responsible
Fatherhood programs funded by ACF's Office of Family Assistance. The
evaluation found that the programs improved aspects of fathers'
parenting behavior, employment, and knowledge of the child support
program. Two additional demonstrations, the Enhanced Transitional Jobs
Demonstration and the Subsidized and Transitional Employment
Demonstration, examined the effectiveness of subsidized employment.
Four sites in the demonstrations focused on serving noncustodial
parents. The evaluation found that subsidized employment programs in
the study increased the earnings of noncustodial parents and increased
the consistency of paying formal child support during the final year of
the 30-month follow-up period.
2.0 Request for Information
Through this RFI, ACF is soliciting ideas and information from a
broad array of stakeholders on improving nonresident parents'
employment outcomes, including how to create a comprehensive, multi-
system approach that addresses multiple barriers that nonresident
parents face when trying to support their children. Although the
primary aim of this RFI is to understand further how employment
programs can increase nonresident parents' ability to economically
support their children, we recognize that nonresident parents are
parents first and may also face barriers to supporting their children
emotionally. Consequently, we are not only interested in information
and recommendations on programs that focus exclusively on employment
services, but we are also interested in programs that provide
employment services combined with parenting or other activities aimed
at promoting father involvement and healthy relationships in children's
lives.
The Evidence Act (Pub. L. 115-435) requires federal agencies to
develop evidence-building plans to identify and address policy
questions relevant to programs, policies, and regulations of the
agency. Responses to this RFI will inform ACF's ongoing development of
a learning and action agenda on employment programs for nonresident
parents. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and
should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the
part of ACF or HHS.
We ask respondents to address the following questions. You do not
need to address every question, and should focus on those where you
have relevant expertise or experience. In your response, please provide
a brief description of yourself or your organization before addressing
the questions.
3.0 Key Questions
3.1 In your opinion, what are the core components necessary for an
employment program to be effective for nonresident parents? Please
provide evidence that supports your opinion.
3.2 In your opinion, what factors have either facilitated or
hindered the implementation of employment programs for nonresident
parents?
3.3 Please describe existing, promising employment programs/
services for nonresident parents that may include, but are not limited
to, work readiness training, occupational/sector-based training, job
search assistance, subsidized employment, or other employment services.
When describing the program, please include the following:
a. Target population,
b. Structure and organizational context of the program,
c. Roles and responsibilities of the lead agency and any partner
agency,
d. Services provided, and
e. Any evidence of the program's effectiveness.
3.4 What role has job training, both in the classroom and on-the-
job, played in effective employment programs for nonresident parents?
3.5 What role has activities aimed at parenting and promoting
father involvement and healthy relationships in children's lives played
in effective employment programs for nonresident parents?
3.6 To what extent do services need to vary depending on the
subpopulation of nonresident parents being served? Please explain what
services you believe are better suited for which subpopulations.
Subpopulations could include, but are not limited to, noncustodial
parents, parents with criminal records and/or a history of
incarceration, young/teen parents, and parents with children by
multiple partners, etc.
3.7 What are the key barriers that nonresident parents face when
trying to secure or maintain employment to support their children
financially? We are interested in hearing about both individual- and
system-level barriers that nonresident parents may face to financially
supporting their children, such as those related to transportation,
education, housing, employment history, child access, child support
debt, criminal record, fees/fines/restitution debt, substance use or
mental health disorders, etc.
3.7.1 What specific approaches have you seen programs use to address
these barriers? Please provide any evidence on the effectiveness of
these approaches in improving parents' financial support for their
children.
3.8 In your experience, what types of agencies or organizations
should be active partners in an employment program for nonresident
parents? Which type of agency is most successful in the lead role?
3.9 Please describe ways to create more systematic relationships
between child support agencies and employment service providers that
might increase the take-up of employment services among nonresidential
parents or increase child support compliance among noncustodial parents
in employment programs, etc.
3.10 If you are a government official or a practitioner, what
additional information would you like to have about approaches to
providing or
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implementing employment programs for nonresident parents?
3.11 What aspects of employment programs for nonresident parents
would benefit from further evaluation?
3.12 What suggestions do you have for how federal, state, regional,
tribal, and local governments could support the development of high-
quality employment programs for nonresident parents and/or address gaps
in current efforts?
Authority: Social Security Act Sec. 413 (Title IV-A: Block
Grants to States for the Temporary Assistance of Needy Families) [42
U.S.C. 613].
Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-04543 Filed 3-4-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-09-P