Policies and Programs Affecting Fathers
Jessica Pearson, PhD, director of the Fatherhood Research & Practice Network (FRPN) and the Center for Policy Research (CPR), along with CPR research analyst Rachel Wildfeuer, PhD, have authored a 12-chapter compilation of policies and programs that support the engagement of fathers with their children in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
This groundbreaking report covers ten areas of public life: child support, child welfare, criminal justice, early childhood, education, employment, family law, food and housing, health and mental health, and responsible fatherhood. In each area, we present state-by-state information on the adoption of a variety of policies and programs that have the potential to support parent-child contact and/or remove barriers to parent-child contact that low-income, nonresident fathers face. The report creates a baseline against which future change might be assessed and a guide to supportive state policy options. All 12 chapters of this state-by-state report are now available for download on the FRPN website individually and as one combined PDF.
By looking at major policies and programs that affect fathers in multiple areas of public life, we highlight what some supportive policies look like, the states that have adopted them, and the gaps in data tracking for fathers. When measures for fathers are unavailable, we use indicators for adult, nonelderly men. In some policy areas (e.g., education), virtually all our examples of supportive policy and programs pertain to undereducated youth and nonelderly adults as a whole, since breakdowns on participation and outcome for men versus women are not available.
The report relies on publicly available data from a variety of sources. This includes laws in multiple policy areas that are tracked on the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) website and in multiple NCSL publications; child support policies that are recorded on the Intergovernmental Reference Guide (IRG) maintained by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement; data maintained by federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Children’s Bureau, and the Department of Labor; and publications in specific policy areas released by organizations such as the National Healthy Start Association, the Education Commission of the States, and the National Parents Organization. We also did original data collection including reviewing websites for state agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia; contacting state informants by email to update published information; and conducting interviews with experts in some policy areas to identify potential data sources and potential indicators.
In terms of family law, we find that national trends toward shared custody, the use of non-adversarial approaches to foster better relationships between separating parents, and equal rights for unmarried fathers belie huge variation at the state level in the parental rights of fathers, especially those who were never married. For example, while all unmarried parents must establish paternity in order to have parental rights, once established, the mother is automatically given sole custody in 14 states. While a divorce decree addresses custody, financial support, and parenting time simultaneously, child support and parenting time are bifurcated for unmarried parents and are typically addressed in separate legal actions that are handled in separate courts. Additionally, while all states have some parent education services to reduce conflict, it is required and widely available in 21 states, mandated and available on a limited basis in 12 states, and totally discretionary in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Although 41 states and the District of Columbia adjust their child support order amount of parenting time and nine states do not, the threshold for the presumptive adjustment to kick in ranges from one or two days per year in California and Kentucky to 178 and 180 days per year in Rhode Island and South Dakota.
Some of these family law inequities must be addressed at the federal level, such as the treatment of parenting time interventions as unallowable activities for the child support program. Another needed federal measure is to increase in the annual allocation for the Access and Visitation (AV) Grant Program, which is the main funding source for help with parenting time for unmarried parents in the child support program. Other changes, however, can and should be addressed at the state level. All states should audit their family law policies, including those dealing with parenting time, coparenting, and relationships, to make sure that they serve families regardless of their marital status.