Personalized Outreach: Testing Early Parent Engagement in Washington’s Child Support Program

This MDRC brief examines the implementation and impact of Washington State’s Division of Child Support (DCS) “personalized” approach for establishing and enforcing child support orders. The approach focuses on providing an alternative compliance mechanism beyond the “service of process” – a formal legal procedure that outlines the amount the noncustodial parent must pay each month. The “personalized” approach aims to lessen distrust which reduces compliance among noncustodial parents and calls for a more cooperative relationship with the noncustodial parent to include: a specialized unit of caseworkers, pre-service outreach phone calls, a follow-up letter to parents not reached by phone, and a new cover sheet that is included in the child support order.