RMC researchers Daniel Schroeder and Dan O’Shea have been monitoring random assignment of child support cases in El Paso County as part of their evaluation of the Integrated Child Support System (ICSS), also known as ‘Local Rule.’ Those with new child support orders are randomly assigned to either participate in the ICSS system or to be a part of the control group. Random assignment started in April, 2013, and will continue until there are 400 cases in each group. It was expected that this would take a year, but at the current pace, it will likely be completed sooner. This ‘true experiment’ at the El Paso site is the centerpiece of a larger impact evaluation, the results of which are eagerly awaited by officials from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) and the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
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