This fact sheet illustrates how Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio offered non-recurrent short-term TANF benefits as flexible responses to address the needs of TANF-eligible populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sheet also briefly notes how Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida have implemented flexible adaptions to TANF work requirements. SNAP approved waivers are also highlighted.

This research-to-practice brief describes the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration project and its integration of procedural justice principles into enforcement practices in six child support agencies in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. The premise of PJAC is that if defendants perceive the dispute resolution process to be fair, they will comply with the outcome of the process, regardless of whether the decision was favorable to the defendant. The target population of the PJAC demonstration project is noncustodial parents being referred for civil contempt of court-mandated child support even when these parents have been determined to be able to pay it. Implementation of PJAC addresses noncustodial parents’ perception of the court system proceedings and reasons for nonpayment, how to improve consistency of their payments, and ways to promote their positive engagement with the child support agency as well as the other parent.