APPENDIX D

EVALUATION OF THE RACINE GODWILL INDUSTRIES PROGRAM

Office of Strategic Finance

Sandra Cleveland, Evaluation Section

July 17, 1996

PO Box 7850

Madison WI 53707-7850

Phone (608) 266-3816

Fax (608) 267-0358

Summary of 1994 Children First Data

This report displays evaluation data collected from the counties about Children First participants who were referred to the program in 1994. Counties routinely send data collection forms to the State describing each participants demographic characteristics, child support payment history and a follow-up form describing the services received and the extent to which participants completed the program. The data from these forms are entered into a database that will be used to prepare an evaluation report for the federal government in July 1998. That evaluation will present the outcomes of clients referred to the program in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

The 1994 database includes information for a total of 1084 cases, of which 981 cases were for regular participants in the program and 103 cases describe participants in a control group in Racine County. The following section describes the outcomes and characteristics of regular participants in the program. There remains a few missing cases which may be included before the final Children First report is produced in July, 1998.

Comparison of Child Support Payments Made by Regular Participants

The following table compares the amount of child support paid, the number of payments made and the total number of people making payments before and after referral to the program. The analysis is restricted only to those participants who had a child support order in effect for at least six months prior to referral. Cases with missing data were excluded leaving a total of 785 cases included in the analysis. Participants owed an average of $4,191.46 in delinquent child support payment at the time they were enrolled.

Table 1.

Pre-Post Comparison of Child Support Payments Made by Children First Participants

Employment Status of Program Participants

The following table describes changes in the employment status of program participants. Missing data was excluded, leaving 589 cases in the analysis. Participants had an average of 2.4 different employers in the past three years and worked approximately four months in the last year.

Table 2.

Employment Status of Children First Participants

Educational Level of Children First Participants

The following tables describe the educational level of Children First participants. Each individual analysis excludes missing data. Children First participants have an average of 11.31 years of education.

Table 3

Proportion of Participants with a High School Diploma

Table 4

Level of Training Beyond High School

Demographic Characteristics of Children First Participants

The following tables display some key demographic characteristics of Children First participants. A total of 981 cases were analyzed, but missing data was excluded for each analysis. The average age of Children First participants was 31.5 at the time they were enrolled in the program. Participants had an average of 2.4 children whose average age is 7.

Table 5

Race of Children First Participants

Table 6

Marital Status of Children First Participants

Table 7

Sex of Children First Participants

Program Completion

The following section was developed by analyzing the responses given on the Compliance Monitoring Form submitted by counties. There were a total of 882 of these forms returned for regular participants in the program for 1994 participants. Each analysis excludes missing data.

Table 8

Program Completion

Table 9

Method of Fulfilling Children First Requirements

Responses on the compliance monitoring form identified reasons that 103 participants were exempt from the program or that their case was closed before they completed the program.

Table 10

Exemptions and Case Closures

Table 11

Participants Sent to Jail During Participation

Table 12

Reasons Participants sent to Jail

Control Group Comparison

As part of the evaluation, a small control group was established in Racine County. Racine County was the only Children First county volunteering to develop a control group. A portion of the people identified for enrollment in Children First in Racine County were randomly assigned to the control group. This group received the same type of service they would have received if the Children First program did not exist. Prior to Children First, parents who were delinquent in their child support payments and who were unemployed were ordered by the court to conduct a job search. They were usually required to contact a minimum number of employers and report their contacts to the court. Members of the control group received these services only.

The final evaluation report of Children First will include a detailed analysis of the outcomes of the control group in order to compare their outcomes to those of regular children First participants in Racine County. This comparison will allow the evaluator to determine the extent to which the program impacts child support payments in Racine County compared to what would have occurred without the program. The following tables are some preliminary comparisons of these outcomes based on the first year of the experiment. Table 13 displays a comparison between Racine County's Regular Participants and the control group. Again, only cases where there were no missing child support data and where the child support order was in effect at least six months prior to referral to the program were included in the analysis. Table 14 displays employment outcomes for these two groups.

Table 13.

Pre-Post Comparison of Racine County's Regular Participants in Children First and Control Group

(Valid total n for Regular Participants=256. Valid total n for control group=70)

*Percentage change from pre-referral total

Table 14.

Comparison of the Employment Status of Regular Participants in Racine County's

Children First Program and their Control Group (Excludes missing data)