Appendix N6 Project fact sheet

Appendix N6

Project fact sheet

Overview and Legal Authority	In the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (i.e., the Farm Bill), Congress directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to assess the implementation, impacts, costs, and benefits of child support cooperation requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). FNS has contracted with Mathematica and MEF Associates to help conduct this voluntary study, which began in September 2019 and will end in September 2022. The goals of child support cooperation requirements are to: increase participation in the child support system, increase the income of families with low income, and reduce the need for public assistance. The cooperation requirement is mandatory in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and Medicaid but is a State option in SNAP. Eight States currently implement cooperation requirements in SNAP, and others have considered doing so. Cooperation requirements generally mandate custodial parents applying for public benefits to assist the child support agency by providing information that helps locate noncustodial parents and establish paternity and support orders. States may also require SNAP noncustodial parents to cooperate with child support by meeting their financial and medical support obligations.
Research objectives	The study will include 12 States, including 7 States that are exercising the option to implement a child support requirement in SNAP, 2 States that formerly implemented a child support cooperation requirement but no longer do so, and 3 states that are considering implementing this requirement. It will document the shares of the SNAP population that are subject to the cooperation requirement, cooperating with child support, and exempt from the requirement. It will also assess the effects the requirement has on SNAP participants and the costs and benefits of implementing the cooperation requirement.
Study activities	To achieve its research objectives, the team is conducting a mixed-method study that includes visiting sites and collecting administrative data. The site visits will include interviews with State staff from the SNAP and child support agencies. In seven States that currently have child support requirements in SNAP, site visits will include visits to two local SNAP and two local child support agency offices as well as interviews with staff and SNAP participants. The team will also collect and analyze administrative data from SNAP, child support, and, in some States, Medicaid and TANF. Finally, the team will collect and analyze cost data associated with implementing the requirement in selected States.
To find out more	Contact Mathematica’s Project Director, Pamela Holcomb, by phone at (202) 250-3573 or by email at [email protected], or the FNS Project Officer, Michael Burke, by phone at (703) 305-4369 or by email at [email protected].

OMB Control No: 0584-XXXX

Expiration date: XX/XX/20XX

Public Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-xxxx. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average one minute per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions to reducing this burden, to the following address: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314, ATTN: PRA (0584-xxxx). Do not return the completed form to this address..

Privacy Act Statement

Authority: This information is being collected under the authority of Section 9 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, (7 U.S.C. 2018). Disclosure of the information is voluntary.

Purpose: The information is being collected to evaluate Child Support Cooperation Requirements in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Routine Use: The information may be shared with SNAP contract researchers and USDA SNAP research and administrative staff.

Disclosure: Disclosure of the information is voluntary. If all or any part of the information is not provided, interviews may not be admissible in data sets.

The Systems of Records Notices relevant to this collection are FNS-8 FNS Studies and Reports located at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1991-04-25/pdf/FR-1991-04-25.pdf and FNS-10 Persons Doing Business with the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) located at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2000/03/31/00-8005/privacy-act-proposed-new-system-of-records.