Contributions by Lauren Barnett ’08, Sian O’Faolain ’08, and Meghan Petersack ’08

In September, three WWS seniors—Lauren Barnett, Meghan Petersack, and Sian O’Faolain—were selected as guest panelists by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) for its 17th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference in Washington, D.C. The students presented at the conference’s closing plenary session.

Barnett has had a policy brief on this topic published by the Roosevelt Institution, a student-run think tank headquartered at Stanford University; and Petersack this summer wrote a policy brief for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington.

Following the conference, the students provided some thoughts on their experiences.

Petersack commented, “While most of my friends were getting the last use out of their tank tops and flip flops during freshman week, I was sporting a business suit and boarding the train to Washington D.C.

“I had traveled to the OCSE to present for the first time in January with the other members of my junior task force. My independent research focused on low-income fathers who do not pay child support
because they can barely support themselves. I recommended a specific model of employment programs for this target population.

“One idea that I presented to the OCSE’s directors involved using ‘Fathering Courts’ to enforce participation in such employment programs. By drawing federal attention to the locations around the
country that have developed these courts, I felt I was really contributing to the child support enforcement system. As an undergraduate who had spent just a few months studying child support policies, it was more than an honor to have access to the time and attention of those running the show at the federal level.

“My involvement with the OCSE continued this past summer through an internship with CLASP. I had the opportunity to focus on child support policies for children in foster care under the guidance
of Vicki Turetsky, an expert on child support policy and a mentor to our class in the fall. After nearly a year of working on child support policies, it was both an honor and a pleasure to return to Washington to present my original research findings to representatives from many
different states.

“Prior to the start of the conference, aptly titled ‘Child Support University,’ I had some time to review my presentation and speak with the other panelists, as well as Myles Schlank and Scott Cade. Mr. Schlank, chief of the OCSE’s Program Development Branch, organized and moderated the panel. Mr. Cade, director of the Child Support Program in New York, pressed us on our ideas and helped connect our theories to the real world of child support practice at a state level.

“Although I was looking out over an audience of over 100 professionals, I was less nervous than I had expected. I think this is a credit to the overwhelming receptiveness of the child support enforcement community. The conference really affirmed for me that the professionals working in this field not only are hard-working and brilliant people, but also driven by a desire to support children and their families.

“When I first stepped into this policy niche, I barely understood what child support was, much less its role in the lives of our nation’s children. I now realize that it is an integral part of any discussion about
public policies involving families—more specifically—poor families.

“Whether I end up joining these passionate people working in child support, or directing my energies into other areas of domestic social policy, I definitely will apply the lessons learned about government, family dynamics, and poverty.”

O’Faolain noted that, “On August 10, a month before I had planned to start thinking about school again, I received an email from Myles Schlank of the OCSE inviting two of my task force classmates and me to present our junior papers at their Child Support Enforcement Training Conference. A month later, I was preparing my presentation, and looking over my junior paper and the PowerPoint file I had presented to about 15 people in the federal office in January.

“The morning of the conference, still expecting to present to a small room of people in the child support world, I walked into the huge conference room that would seat over 100 people during our presentation two hours later. Mr. Schlank and Mr. Cade accompanied us on the stage. My presentation offered supporting data that co-parenting programs for never-married, low-income parents were both necessary and beneficial to the child support program’s clients and goals.

“Scott Cade responded to my presentation by bringing up the question of how to expand outreach with limited funding, and whether requiring a fee for service would deter clients from using certain programs. In response to my recommendation to attach, electronically, parenting plans to case files, he raised a very specific concern about the capacity of his office’s server, which might not be able to attach large numbers of PDF files. Whereas we had been able to look at the issues in a rather detached way, his question took my presentation and applied it to his own experience with the actual program in New York. A few audience members made comments, such as bringing up the idea of conducting mediation services over the phone, that were ideas I had not come across before nor included in my research. It sparked dynamic conversations with child support professionals applying my presentation to their real-life experiences in the field.

“This experience speaks to the relevance of the Woodrow Wilson School’s policy task forces, where students have the opportunity to study a relevant policy issue in depth and actually share their research with people who want to hear it. Not only were my colleagues and I introduced into the ‘child support universe,’ but also were able to choose our topics and conduct our research independently on an aspect of the policy issues that most interested us. The chance to relate my own interest in the subject, as a child of divorced parents, to the data I collected on coparenting programs around the country was one of the most stimulating experiences I have had at Princeton.

“Being a senior commissioner for the same task force this year, I have been able to appreciate the program even more. A behind-the-scenes look confirmed that this particular government agency really appreciates the work done by the task force, and has given this year’s group a topic list of the challenges and questions that are currently most relevant to the agency. I look forward to seeing this year’s juniors have their turn to present their research to the federal office in January.”

Finally, Barnett reported, “Being invited back to Washington was both an exciting and humbling experience. It was an honor that the OCSE took our task force seriously enough to ask us to represent our findings. We always heard that task forces are unique because of their applications to real-world problems, and the OCSE brought this to the forefront for those of us in WWS 401 Fathers, Child Well-Being, and Child Support Enforcement. We made two trips to Washington last year, the first to ask questions and the second to speak on our findings. However, being invited for a third time reinforced that they cared about our suggestions.

“The trip itself opened my eyes to how challenging it is to turn policy into practice. Because of the great number of conference attendees from across the country, we were able to speak with individuals from states that had experimented with some of our proposals. My junior paper advocated increased funding for child support education programs in schools as a means of deterring too-early parenting. The paper came to life when I heard representatives say things like, ‘We had a similar program in Texas, and here are some of the obstacles we faced…’ I realized that, while the roposals in our papers may have been feasible considerations, there also were a host of implementation issues that had not been considered.

“I especially appreciated that each of our presentations was followed by a discussion, during which Scott Cade and audience members provided feedback and asked questions. The entire process was dynamic and stimulating. I was quite surprised when Director Cade quoted a statistic from my paper from memory and wanted to discuss its implications with me.

“WWS 401 was a seminal part of my Princeton career and one whose influence exceeded the boundaries of one semester. I had never been so invested nor so passionate about the issues about which I wrote. I developed personal relationships with individuals who felt that, in going to Washington and writing this paper, I was going to ‘save their programs.’ After presenting in September, I realize how important and exciting this kind of policy is, and have decided to focus my thesis on fragile families, healthy marriages, and the nurturing parent model. I am grateful to the Wilson School for the wonderful opportunities it bestows on undergraduates, and to the offices in Washington that were so supportive of our projects.”

In the fall of 2006, all three women participated in the “Fathers, Child Well-Being, and Child Support Enforcement” undergraduate policy task force directed by WWS Lecturer in Public Affairs Hillard Pouncy. This fall, Barnett and O’Faolain served as senior commissioners for the undergraduate policy task force on Child Support Enforcement Policy, also directed by Pouncy.