Child Access and Visitation Grants To States for NCP

[Samson2005]

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/2004/reports/prelim_access_visitation_grants/

THIS IS A MUST READ!

Child Access and Visitation Grants:

C. Enabling Legislation

The "Grants to States for Access and Visitation" Program was authorized by Congress through passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The overall goal of the program is to:

"...enable states to establish and administer programs to support and facilitate non-custodial parents' access to and visitation of their children...".

States are directed to accomplish this goal through the provision of services including, but not limited to:
mediation (mandatory and voluntary);
counseling;
education (e.g., parent education);
development of parenting plans;
visitation enforcement:
monitoring or supervised visitation
neutral drop-off and/or pick-up; and
development of guidelines for visitation and alternative custody arrangements.

...
Chart H: Courts the Major Source of Referral for Service

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/2004/reports/prelim_access_visitation_grants/

[MixedBag]

I've seen this before....

And like you was excited to read about it.

Until someone pointed out that it was funded at $100K per year which will be eaten up quickly by the person's salary to basically run the program.

It's a start....

[mistoffolees]

There was an article in my local morning paper today about a new program for NCPs to help them find jobs. Their premise is that NCPs WANT to pay support, but many of them can't because they can't find jobs. In one case, a person had a criminal record and was passed up for several jobs, but they found him a good job with a company which was willing to overlook his record.

To try to stay at least a little bit on topic, there are certainly enough complaints about people who are prevented from seeing their kids because they're behind on their support (even though this is, of course, illegal), so perhaps being able to help people to be current on their support would help more NCPs to spend time with their kids.

So far, the program appears to be a success and they're expanding it. I normally don't like government programs, but I'm glad that this one has been successful.

[MixedBag]

There's actually a member here -- don't know if they are still around or not, but they did this as their job here in Alabama.

And nope don't remember if the job was somehow connected to this grant or not.

[Samson2005]

I remember posting it before and excited about it.

Reading further into what it is and how it works, it is said that the states control how the money is to be spent.

It also says that the states can get more each year if they show a need for it.

[Samson2005]

here is an interesting read about the program:

http://www.fedspending.org/faads/faads.php?&sortby=r&record_num=all&detail=-1&datype=T&reptype=a&database=faads&cfda_program_num=93.597