Policies to Require and Enable Less-Educated Noncustodial Parents to Work and Provide Financial Support for Their Children

1 This discussion paper outlines three policy strategies that would make a comprehensive attack on several discrete barriers to work and child support compliance by low-income non-custodial parents (NCPs). Researchers and policy analysts have understood these barriers have been for more than a decade, but interest by policymakers in low-income NCPs may create a renewed climate for policy reform. Such a comprehensive strategy might be most easily implemented by changes in federal policy that provide incentives for states to act on provisions of state law or policy, which are, in turn, responsible for these barriers. I detail the barriers and strategies below