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Children need and deserve financial and emotional support from both their parents. You will see from this publication how important it can be to have dad's involvement in children's education. The positive effects of father involvement have been a fairly consistent finding in studies of two-parent families. Now a growing body of research is showing that financial support and the positive involvement of a father, including cooperation between parents, increase positive outcomes for children who do not live with both of their parents.
Moreover, research that separates father involvement from mother involvement is telling us that fathers have an independent effect on child well-being. For example, the father's parenting style, level of closeness, monitoring, and other family processes affect the child's development.
In the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, we continue to work with our partners in seeking innovative ways to engage fathers as active participants in their children's lives. This publication is one example. Another example is our recent partnership with states and the Advertising Council, Inc. We developed a national multi-media campaign to create an awareness of the responsibilities of fathers and of the importance of a non-resident father to his children.
We know that most fathers want to be good parents to their children and do the right thing by them. With a tag line of "They're Your Kids, Be Their Dad," the public service announcements bring into sharp focus the importance of fathers to their children.
Other projects we support will test approaches that serve young, never-married, non-resident parents who do not have a child support court order in place and may face obstacles to employment. Activities will include fatherhood and parenting workshops, transportation assistance, educational and career planning services, financial planning, skill education, the voluntary establishment of paternity, and other services.
When I came to child support, I put a sign over my office door that said, "Children First." I meant it, and as an agency we have tried to live by it. But children can only be truly first when both parents — whether they live together or apart — put them first.
Please join with us in helping to make that a reality.
David Gray Ross, Commissioner,
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement
We wish to acknowledge the following people and organizations who were instrumental in developing and producing these materials:
Principal authors of the report: Ken Canfield, National Center for Fathering, and Lisa A. Gilmore, Office of the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Contributors: We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Father-to-Father, a national effort to unite men in the task of being a strong and positive force in their children's lives, whose members generously provided their ideas, experiences, and expertise. In addition, we express our sincere thanks to Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families for allowing us to reprint the entire section on Research and Practice-Focused Resources on Fathers and Families, published in the April 2000 issue of GCYF Insight.
Artwork: Original cover and interior illustrations by Rene Sterling, HIV/AIDS Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Special thanks for the support of our colleagues:
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Kevin Thurm, Deputy Secretary and chair of the HHS Fatherhood Initiative; David Gray Ross, Commissioner, Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF); Frank Fuentes, Associate Commissioner, OCSE; David H. Siegel, Phil Sharman, Nicholas Soppa, Harold Staten, and Andrew Williams, OCSE; Linda Mellgren, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; Natasha Cabrera, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health; Yasmine Daniel, Head Start Bureau, Administration for Children, Youth and Families, ACF; Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); MaryLouise Embrey, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, SAMHSA; Dee Herman and Carlos McCormick, Office of the Administrator, SAMHSA; Peter C. van Dyck, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Administrator, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Health Resources and Services Administration; Stephanie Bryn, Diana Denboba, John McGovern, Barbara Carter, and Mary Worrell, MCHB; Nathan Stinson, Jr., Ph.D., M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, Office of Minority Health (OMH), Office of Public Health and Science; Guadalupe Pacheco and Georgia S. Buggs, OMH; Walter Williams, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Director, Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Wilma Johnson and Yvonne Lewis, Office of the Associate Director for Minority Health, CDC; and David Peabody, Graphics Supervisor, Synectics for Management Decisions.
From the U.S. Department of Education: Terry K. Peterson, Counselor to the Secretary; G. Mario Moreno, Assistant Secretary, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs (OIIA); W. Wilson Goode, Deputy Assistant Secretary, OIIA; Karri Agnetti, Linda Bugg, Sarah Demma, Menahem Herman, Mary M. Smith, Educational Partnerships and Family Involvement, OIIA; Larry Whitman, OIIA; Oliver Moles, Office of Educational Research and Improvement; Jacquelyn Zimmermann, Office of Public Affairs; and John F. McGrath, Community Services.
From the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education (PFIE): We also would like to acknowledge each of the following organizations and their representatives who participate as family-school members of PFIE: Sue Ferguson, National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education; Darla Strouse, Maryland State Department of Education; Justine Handelman, MARC Associates; Ken Canfield, National Center for Fathering; Neil Tift, National Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families, Inc.; Jim Levine, Families and Work Institute/The Fatherhood Project; Frank Kwan, Los Angeles County Office of Education; and David Hirsch, Illinois Fatherhood Initiative.
Acknowledgment is also due to the Office of the Vice President for its leadership role and support for the initial teleconference "Fathers Matter!" which aired on October 28, 1999.
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Last updated: 02/28/01