The purpose of the Procedural Justice
Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration (PJAC)
demonstration project is to assess the feasibility and efficacy of
incorporating principles of procedural justice into child support
services as a cost-effective alternative to civil contempt
proceedings. The PJAC Demonstration will add to the evidence base
on innovations in child support practices by evaluating PJAC’s
impacts and determining whether the benefits of PJAC services
exceed their costs. The PJAC Evaluation includes three key
components: an implementation study, an impact study, and a
benefit-cost study. The coronavirus pandemic and related economic
fallout require modifications to some of the approved data
collection approaches and protocols. This nonsubstantive change
request is for changes to Instruments 3, 4 and 7. Instrument 3:
Staff Interview Topic Guide. Due to travel restrictions, we now
plan to complete the remaining interviews by videoconference, as
opposed to in-person. The instrument and supporting statements have
been updated to reflect this change in mode. Instrument 4:
Noncustodial Parent Participant Interview Protocol and Instrument
7: Custodial Parent Interview Protocol. These interviews have
already been cleared for in-person or phone modalities; in light of
travel restrictions, they will be conducted by phone only. Several
questions in the proposed revised interviews would directly touch
on aspects of parents’ lives that have likely been affected by the
coronavirus. These are employment, relationships with children and
the other parent, and changes to how child support agencies and
courts handle child support cases. In order to gather sufficient
information to understand the effect of the pandemic on these key
topics for the evaluation, questions and probes related to
coronavirus have been added to the protocols. These questions and
probes will allow the research team some insights into (1) how the
public health crisis may have affected PJAC treatment and
business-as-usual services from the vantage point of parents, thus
effecting the treatment contrast for this random assignment study
and (2) how the social and economic context of the pandemic may
affect employment and family relationships, which may in turn
affect child support payments, the evaluation’s main outcome of
interest. Estimated average time to complete these interviews will
remain the same.
US Code:
42
USC 1315 Name of Law: Section 1115 of the Social Security
Act
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
PJAC NonSub Change Request_20200717.docx
Attachment B_PJAC MDRC IRB Approval Letter.pdf
Instrument 7: Custodial Parent (CP) interview protocol