About MDRC
Baird has extensive experience at the state level in site development and evaluation start-up, and in administering state-run social service programs, primarily employment programs that serve people with disabilities. Currently he manages sites for MDRC’s Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, and acts as an evaluation lead for MDRC’s TANF/SSI project. Baird is also the project director for the PGAP for Veterans project, providing overall project management for that effort. In earlier work at MDRC, Baird managed two sites for the Youth Transition Demonstration and directed the employment services portions of the Accelerated Benefits project, which provided health care and employment supports to new Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries. Prior to joining MDRC, Baird worked at the state level for 12 years, helping to manage a variety of health and employment programs aimed at improving functioning and independence for people with disabilities. He also was deeply involved in federal and state legislation as a policy consultant to Senator Jim Jeffords (VT).
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MDRC Publications
Issue FocusA Look at Shifts in Employment Services at Jewish Family Services
March, 2021The pandemic required service providers to make abrupt, often improvised adjustments to keep working with clients, and some of those changes may become permanent. One Ohio-based social service agency is figuring out which changes it will retain as more normal operations resume.
Issue FocusJanuary, 2021This post describes the creative adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic of two employment providers that use the Individual Placement and Support model to help people find and keep jobs despite multiple, serious barriers to employment.
BriefWhat Several Months of COVID-19 Revealed in the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) Demonstration
December, 2020The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) project integrates procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement at six child support agencies. This brief describes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on PJAC project agencies and parents during the spring and summer of 2020, and examines agencies’ responses.
BriefThe Behavioral Interventions for Child Support Services (BICS) Project
October, 2019This intervention tested with the Vermont Office of Child Support changed outreach materials and the structure of conferences with parents in order to increase parent participation in the child support process and increase the percentage of cases where both parents reached agreement outside of court. It did improve both outcomes.
BriefIntroducing the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Project
June, 2019Procedural justice centers on the idea that individuals’ perception of the fairness of a process determines how they respond to it. In this random assignment demonstration, child support programs are applying this principle to reframe their work with families as a respectful, problem-solving endeavor.
BriefIncreasing Child Support Order Modification Review Completion in Ohio
May, 2019In Ohio, the process to modify a child support order has two stages that typically take more than 100 days to complete. In two counties, the Behavioral Interventions for Child Support Services team worked with local agencies to test four interventions designed to simplify the process.
ReportDecember, 2017The Kansas Child Support Savings Initiative encourages parents to make deposits into tax-advantaged college savings plans in return for matching reductions in their child support debts. This report describes two randomized controlled trials conducted by Kansas and MDRC to test different methods of outreach and engagement.
ReportApplying Behavioral Insights to Increase Collections
February, 2016Findings from tests in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, demonstrate that low-cost, low-effort behavioral interventions can improve child support payment outcomes. These tests are part of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project, sponsored by the federal Administration for Children and Families.
ReportUsing Behavioral Economics to Increase Child Support Payments
July, 2015A low-cost behavioral intervention produced a modest increase in the number of parents in Franklin County, Ohio, who made at least one child support payment over four months. This test is part of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project, sponsored by the federal Administration for Children and Families.
ReportInnovative Strategies for Serving TANF Recipients with Disabilities
December, 2013Both Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) may serve low-income individuals with disabilities. Yet the two programs’ differences in approach and structure pose challenges to coordinating services. This report describes the implementation and findings of three promising pilot interventions intended to address that problem.
BriefEarly Implementation of the Progressive Goal Attainment Program (PGAP) for Veterans Demonstration
April, 2013This policy brief describes an innovative program designed to target the psychological and social behaviors that contribute to pain, disability, and inactivity among veterans with disabilities. The goal is to help these veterans resume daily activities and get on a path to work.
ReportDecember, 2012The Youth Transition Demonstration, led by Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and TransCen, Inc., is developing and evaluating strategies to help youth with disabilities transition from school to work. While participants in the Career Transition Program were more likely to have used employment-promoting services than youth in a control group, there were no impacts on work, income, or school completion.
ReportApril, 2011The Youth Transition Demonstration, led by Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and TransCen, Inc., is developing and evaluating strategies to help youth with disabilities transition from school to work. The implementation of the Colorado project deviated from the YTD model, and, while participants were more likely to have used employment services than youth in the control group, the program had no impacts on employment, income, or other measures.
ReportMarch, 2010The Youth Transition Demonstration, led by Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and TransCen, Inc., is developing and evaluating promising strategies to help youth with disabilities become as economically self-sufficient as possible as they transition from school to work. This report offers six overall implementation lessons to help policymakers and administrators develop, fund, and provide interventions for youth with disabilities.
ReportDecember, 2008The transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities, particularly youth receiving disability program benefits, can be especially challenging. The Youth Transition Demonstration, led by Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and TransCen, Inc., is developing and evaluating six promising strategies to help youth with disabilities become as economically self-sufficient as possible as they transition from school to work.
BriefDesign and Early Implementation of the Accelerated Benefits Demonstration
September, 2008Many Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries have serious and immediate health care needs, but, under current law, most are not eligible for Medicare until 24 months after they start receiving cash benefits. This policy brief describes a new project that is testing whether providing earlier access to health benefits, as well as other services, for new SSDI beneficiaries who have no other health insurance improves employment and health outcomes.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Megan Millenky, Dan Bloom, Susan Scrivener, Charles Michalopoulos, Dina A. R. Israel, Johanna Walter, Peter Baird, Lauren Cates, Sally Dai, Caroline Mage, Emily Marano, Viktoriya Syrov, Emmi Obara, Nicole MorrisMany Americans struggle in the labor market even when overall economic conditions are good. Unemployment is persistently high for some demographic groups and in certain geographic areas, and a large proportion of working-age adults — about one in five in 2017 — tend to be out of the labor force. In addition, in recent decades broad economic trends have...
Melanie Skemer, Dan Bloom, Peter Baird, Dina A. R. Israel, Louisa Treskon, Douglas Phillips, Rebecca Behrmann, Caroline Mage, Yana Kusayeva, Olivia Williams, Jennifer (Jenny) HauslerThe Office of Child Support Enforcement launched the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt ( PJAC ) demonstration to test the efficacy of incorporating procedural justice principles into child support practices as a cost-effective alternative to contempt. In this context, contempt is a legal action involving the use of civil court proceedings against...
Adults with disabilities and recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) often struggle to find stable and meaningful employment, while state TANF agencies struggle to provide effective employment services in a timely and cost-effective manner. In 2013, MDRC , in collaboration with MEF Associates, completed an evaluation of Families Achieving Success...
Jean Grossman, Dan Bloom, Barbara S. Goldman, John Hutchins, Jared Smith, Rekha Balu, Frieda Molina, Helen Lee, Virginia Knox, Peter Baird, Clinton Key, Bret Barden, Jessica Kopsic, Rebecca Schwartz, Emily Marano, Ellie Warner-Rousseau, Rachael MetzMany human services programs require that applicants complete a series of steps — from providing eligibility to arranging transportation and child care — in order to benefit from services. Program designers often assume that individuals carefully consider their options and make the best decisions for their personal circumstances. Over the past 30 years, however,...
Many noncustodial parents do not pay their full child support obligations and therefore accumulate child support debt. At the same time, many children receiving child support assistance have little or no savings to help pay for their higher education. In an effort to increase child support payments, lower child support debt, and expand the future economic opportunities...
Dan Bloom, Peter Baird, Jared Smith, Barbara S. Goldman, Caitlin Anzelone, Yana Kusayeva, Caroline MageBehavioral science sheds light on human decision-making and behavior to better understand why people make the choices that they do. Designers of social services often expect that clients will understand their many choices and obligations, respond appropriately to notices, recognize the benefits of supportive services, and diligently follow through. When these...
The Accelerated Benefits Demonstration tested whether making medical benefits immediately available to new Social Security Disability Insurance ( SSDI ) beneficiaries would improve their health and increase the likelihood they would return to work. SSDI pays cash benefits to eligible workers who are disabled. Financed by Social Security taxes paid by workers, employers...
John Martinez, Peter Baird, Lauren Cates, Johanna Walter, Bret Barden, Melanie Skemer, Dina A. R. IsraelWhile welfare agencies and the federal disability system have common goals of supporting people with disabilities and helping them become more independent, the two systems often have diverging interests as well. Differing missions, programmatic and financial challenges, definitions of disability, and rules and incentives related to work make it challenging for the...
Drawing upon its experience in disability, behavioral, and employment research, MDRC tested the Progressive Goal Attainment Program ( PGAP ) for Veterans starting in 2012. The study was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ( VA ) Connecticut Healthcare System and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas, and was...
Many social programs are designed in such a way that individuals must make active decisions and go through a series of steps in order to benefit from them. They must decide which programs to apply to or participate in, complete forms, attend meetings, show proof of eligibility, and arrange travel and child care. Program designers often assume that individuals will...
In April 2005, approximately 776,000 young people with disabilities between the ages of 14 and 25 were receiving federal Supplemental Security Income benefits. Individuals who began receiving these benefits before age 18 were expected to stay on the disability rolls for an average of 27 years. Programs that could help young people with disabilities make a successful...