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The Education Commission of the States conducted a national survey on workforce development in the community college. The research instrument was sent to the state agency responsible for oversight of the community colleges in each of the 50 states. Forty-five states responded. The five states that did not respond are Idaho, Hawaii, Maryland, Montana, and South Dakota. Findings include: (1) 21 states provided special funding to community colleges to train workers for high-demand occupations; (2) the type of funding varied, and ranged from under $1 million in some states to $45 million in California; (3) 18 states provided state funds, in addition to federal funds, to support occupational training of disadvantaged students by community colleges; (4) 32 states provided state funding to support customized training for employers; (5) at least eight states required matching funding from the employers served; (6) 20 states funded non-credit occupational training (apart from customized training for employers) at community colleges; (7) 17 states provided special funding to help community colleges purchase, maintain, or replace computers and other equipment for workforce training; and (8) 40 of the 45 respondents answered a question regarding challenges they faced in workforce training. Of these 40, 30 cited lack of funding as a major challenge. (Author/NB)

This brief updates "Income Support and Social Services for Low-Income People in New York," an overview of benefits and services in the state in 1997. Information comes from reviews of state and local program documents and interviews with selected officials responsible for policy and program operations in Erie County (Buffalo) and New York City. Most of the implementation of welfare reform occurred after the baseline visits that yielded the information presented in the earlier report. This brief describes the Family Assistance (FA) program, New York's version of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which represents a departure from the program described in the earlier report. Since 1997, New York has made many changes across the spectrum of social safety net programs. This brief concentrates on three areas of change: FA and workforce development, child care, and child welfare. The first section profiles New York's population; social, economic, and political conditions; the safety net; and changes in caseloads since 1997. The subsequent three sections describe in more detail current policies and recent changes in the areas of FA and workforce development, child care, and child welfare. The final section highlights other key changes in New York's safety net and their implications for understanding the effects of devolution and welfare reform. (SM)

Employment, earnings, and poverty among single mothers in New York City and across the United States in the age of welfare reform were examined to identify goals and recommendations for reauthorization of legislation regulating Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The study indicated that although job holding by single mothers has risen by 16.8% since 1996 and unemployment among single mothers fell from 15.3% in 1996 to 10.7% in 2000, low wages, less than steady full-time work, and an inadequate system of income support are combining to produce high rates of poverty in families headed by employed single mothers. The following recommendations for revising TANF were offered as ways of increasing welfare recipients' ability to obtain better jobs, raise their incomes, and improve their rates of job retention: (1) expand access to training and education; (2) fund transitional employment programs; (3) increase funding for child care; (4) create funding for demonstration projects that improve access to other work supports; (5) allow states to exempt wage subsidies, housing assistance, and other income supports from the 5-year TANF time limit; (6) restore eligibility for legal immigrants; and (7) index the TANF block grant. Information on the study data and methodology is appended. (Contains 57 footnotes and 20 tables.) (MN)

Since the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (welfare reform), impoverished children in single-parent families receive less aid than under the previous system, and the most disadvantaged of these children have slipped deeper into poverty. This research brief summarizes a study that explored the economic well-being of children in low-income single-parent families since welfare reform. Specifically, the brief examines how family income and access to health insurance, food stamps, and cash assistance changed for children in low-income single-parent families between 1996 and 2000. While child poverty has improved overall (the share of low-income children living in poverty has fallen), children in poor single-parent families in 2000 are less likely to receive cash assistance, Medicaid, and food stamps. Even the most disadvantaged children--those living in extreme poverty, defined as below half the poverty line--are less likely to receive benefits now than previously. (Author/HTH)

An evaluation was conducted of Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), one of the earliest statewide welfare reform programs designed to increase work and reduce reliance on welfare. To assess the difference WRP made, parents applying for or receiving cash assistance in Vermont from July 1994 to December 1996 were assigned randomly to one of these three groups: WRP group that received financial work incentives and were subject to work requirements (full WRP group); WRP Incentives Only group that received the incentives but were not subject to the work requirement; and Aid to Needy Families with Children (ANFC) group subject to pre-WRP welfare rules (no incentives or work requirement). Groups were followed for six years, using computerized records and survey methods. Findings indicated the following: (1) the full WRP program increased employment and reduced reliance on cash assistance for single-parent families; (2) WRP had little effect on family income, material hardship, children's school performance, or other family and child outcomes; (3) the program's work requirement was needed to generate impacts--financial incentives alone did not lead to increases in employment or income; (4) WRP increased employment among most subgroups, and increases were largest for the most disadvantaged; (5) very few community service employment positions were needed for the work requirement; (6) it saved money for taxpayers; and (7) WRP did not affect employment, earnings, income, material hardship, or outcomes for children for two-parent families with an unemployed parent. (Contains 26 references.) (YLB)

A study assessed Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) implementation and effects in Cuyahoga County between 1992-2000. It used field research, surveys and interviews of current and former welfare recipients, state and county welfare and employment records, and indicators of social and economic trends. Findings indicated Cuyahoga County remade its welfare system in response to TANF. It instituted new policies and services to divert families from welfare, promote employment, and enforce time limits. Welfare receipt declined in the county, and employment among welfare recipients increased. The economy and other factors appeared to have driven these trends. However, TANF encouraged long-term welfare recipients to leave the rolls faster and discouraged food stamp recipients from coming onto cash assistance. A longitudinal survey of former and ongoing welfare mothers in Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods showed substantial increases in employment. These changes were not necessarily due to welfare reform; they might reflect the economy and maturation of women and their children. The number of neighborhoods with a high concentration of welfare recipients declined. (Contains 127 references.) (YLB)

The Road to Success (RtS) program was designed to introduce hard-to-employ adults with learning disabilities and other cognitive barriers to ways of learning that are will enable them to learn the skills and knowledge they will need as employees and in their everyday lives. Originally developed to serve welfare recipients in Kansas, RtS was eventually expanded to serve all clients of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. The RtS curriculum, which was delivered in 6-week workshops by community college instructors, was based on a cognitive model of adult learning, featuring techniques such as advance organizers, explicit description, verbal rehearsal, modeling, and specific feedback. In addition to teaching transferable learning strategies, the curriculum focused on the following "soft skills" so strongly supported by the employment sector: social skills, sense of community, self-determination, employability skills, and knowledge of employment rights and responsibilities. The program has proved highly successful. Sixty-three percent of RtS attendees successfully completed the workshop. Pretest/posttest data established that all participants made measurable gains in their sense of work ethic, self-sufficiency, positive attitude, and communication skills. Close collaboration between the RtS participants' case managers and their RtS instructors was deemed a key factor in the program's success. (Forty-six tables are included. Fourteen charts and a 22-item bibliography are appended.) (MN)

This paper revisits 1997-98 findings that indicated that during the first years of state implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), states were most likely to implement the environment theory, which claims that children benefit socially and psychologically from being part of a household in which caregivers have jobs, and less likely to create policies, programs, structures, and processes that put the resource and family structure theories into effect. The resource theory holds that children benefit from an increase in economic resources, and the family structure theory contends that children are negatively affected when raised in single-parent families. It uses two additional rounds of field research, focusing on 16 states. In states with high rates of child poverty, TANF policies continue to be most consistent with the environment theory. States have adopted policies emphasizing going to work and staying off or getting off public assistance. Their policies about work requirements and TANF work programs are very similar to those of states with low child poverty. Unlike states with low child poverty, however, these states have not expanded the resources made available to poor families to nearly the same degree. Although it might be argued that many states have expanded work supports and other resources for working families since the first years of TANF implementation, this tendency is much weaker among the states where most poor children reside. All states have done relatively little with respect to family structure theory, although states with high child poverty devote more money to such policies. (Contains 9 references.) (SM)

The findings of the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) were analyzed to identify ways of improving the process of moving people from welfare to work. Selected lessons from the analysis were as follows: (1) welfare-to-work programs that rely on adult basic education programs for the general population are unlikely to improve welfare recipients' basic reading and math skills; (2) all 11 NEWWS programs increased single parents' employment and earnings and decreased their welfare receipt and payments relative to the levels found in the program's absence; (3) employment-focused programs generally had larger effects on employment and earnings than did education-focused programs; (4) the human capital development (HCD) approach did not produce more long-run economic benefits than the labor force attachment (LFA) approach did; (5) compared to the HCD approach, the LFA approach moved people into jobs more quickly and was much cheaper to operate; (6) welfare-to-work programs can decrease the incidence of physical domestic violence; (7) programs with mandates and services that also leave income unchanged have relatively few effects on young children; and (8) well-funded, well-run, integrated case management-based programs offer advantages over traditional programs. A table summarizing NEWWS program activities is appended. Twenty-five selected publications from the evaluation are listed. (Contains 20 tables.) (MN)

A study examined welfare reform and food security issues. Interviews were conducted with 32 rural Louisiana women in 1997-98 when they were receiving welfare payments, in 1998-99 when they were in transition, and in 2000-01 when none received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Most women were African-American; about half had not completed high school or a GED. Most women received food stamps, and all households with children relied on free breakfast and lunch programs at their children's schools. The overwhelming majority of study participants had poor diets, despite the fact that few reported food insecurity or hunger. They ate primarily fried foods, fat meats, and large quantities of food--when food was available. About 62 percent of participants were overweight or obese. Nutrition-related chronic diseases, like Type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, and hypertension disproportionally affect low-income women, and obesity is often a co-morbid condition. A policy change like the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 that makes even a temporary reduction in household income can have negative effects on food security. The women's lack of health care coverage will loom large as their health history, poor nutrition, lack of nutrition education, and environmental stressors undermine their long-term physical well-being. The "food safety net" must be protected so that not only food security, but healthy eating, gives low-resource families and children the best possible chance for self-sufficiency on all levels. (Contains 17 references.) (TD)

This report summarizes the association of welfare sanctions--benefits terminated or reduced for failure to comply with behavioral requirements--with the health and food security of children younger than 3 years of age in 6 large U.S. cities (Baltimore, Boston, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C.). Information for the report includes data collected through the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP). The C-SNAP involved a sentinel sample of caregivers of infants and toddlers presenting at pediatric emergency rooms and primary care services for non-life- threatening conditions. Eligible caregivers were interviewed regarding the child's and parent's health, household demographics, use of public assistance programs, and food security. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) welfare sanctions and benefits decrease are associated with significantly increased rates of hospitalizations for young children, and these effects were not altered by receipt of food stamp or WIC benefits; (2) welfare sanctions are associated with significantly increased rates of food insecurity in households of young children; (3) in Boston and Minneapolis, infants and toddlers in 2001 had approximately a 40 percent higher risk of food insecurity compared to 1999, a 30 percent higher risk of being underweight, and a 50 percent higher risk of being hospitalized during an emergency room visit. The report's three appendices provide additional detail on the study's methodology, the food security questions, and a description of welfare sanction policies. (Contains 27 references.) (KB)

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed existing procedures to manage Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) contracting and also identified problems with regard to management of TANF contracting. The major data collection activities were as follows: (1) a national survey of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the 10 counties with the largest TANF funding allocations in the 13 states that administer TANF locally; (2) interviews with selected Health and Human Services (HHS) officials; (3) an examination of audits performed under the Single Audit Act of 1984; and (4) state and local site visits in California, the District of Columbia, Florida, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. The GAO concluded that federal oversight of state and local TANF contracting can be strengthened, and it recommended that HHS use single state audit reports in a more systematic manner to identify the extent and nature of internal control weaknesses related to state oversight of TANF contractors. The following items are appended: information about the study scope and methodology; the national survey instrument; a discussion of problems cited with TANF subrecipient monitoring by state single audits in 1999 and 2000; comments from the Department of HHS; and a list of GAO contacts and staff acknowledgments. (MN)

Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), which was implemented in 1994-2001, required that single-parent welfare recipients who could not find wage-paying jobs after receiving cash assistance for 30 months accept work in subsidized, minimum-wage community service employment (CSE) positions to satisfy their work requirement and improve their ability to obtain unsubsidized employment. The WRP was subjected to a comprehensive evaluation that included an analysis of data from the administrative records of its CSE component and surveys of CSE participants and their supervisors. Most CSE worksites were involved with education, public works, or social services. Although many participants were not given a choice about their CSE assignment, nearly 90% considered it very or somewhat fair that they had been required to accept a CSE assignment. Although most CSE participants viewed their CSE experience positively, only slightly more than half saw their CSE job as a way out of welfare. CSE was credited with helping participants gain/improve the following types of employment qualifications: skills required for specific jobs; basic job skills; ability to use tools and machines; academic skills; soft skills; and good work habits. Supervisors generally considered CSE useful, but stated that they could have given participants more training had the CSE positions been full time. (Contains 10 tables and 7 figures.) (MN)

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) needs to focus more directly on what happens in the workplace and consider the needs of employers. Employers identify skill levels of both job applicants and employees as a major obstacle to employing and retaining TANF recipients and other entry-level workers as well as the cost of entry-level employee turnover. Pre-employment training for TANF recipients can develop basic employability skills, work-related literacy and math skills, and job-specific skills. By considering policies that address these improvements, policy makers can increase the benefits employers receive from TANF-funded workforce development. (Contains 11 endnotes.) (AJ)

To inform policymakers as they deliberate over the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) reauthorization, this guide reviews what states have done with the flexibility afforded them by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The first section examines how states have shaped their welfare reform strategies since 1996. It describes how, programmatically, most states used their new responsibilities and flexibility to implement these three policies: requiring work, making work pay, and time-limiting welfare benefits. The second section synthesizes findings from dozens of rigorous studies of welfare reform's effects on poor families and government budgets. To help policymakers understand the individual and combined effects of different policy approaches and come to better-informed decisions about how to address these trade-offs, this section looks closely at the effects of the different approaches in these seven key areas: program participation and mandates, employment and earnings, welfare use, income and hardship, children's well-being, and family and marriage. These policy implications of the research findings for TANF reauthorization are drawn: expand the role of education and training; add services for the hard-to-employ; enhance states' flexibility to reward work and benefit children; set reasonable participation standards; require midterm review of time-limit policies and adequacy of the 20 percent exemption; and invest in learning and sustaining innovation. (Contains 23 references.) (YLB)

In May 2000, a conference on the rural dimensions of welfare reform and food assistance policy brought together researchers, welfare policy experts, and rural scholars. This issue brief summarizes some major findings of the conference and suggests future policy options to better address the differing needs of rural and urban families. Between 1994 and 1999, welfare caseloads fell by 47 percent nationwide. Caseload drops were similar in rural and urban areas overall, but some states had very different outcomes in rural and urban areas. At the same time, food stamp participation dropped by 33 percent. While both the size of the eligible population and participation rates dropped in urban areas, only the eligible population declined in rural areas. Studies report similar increases in employment for single mothers in rural and urban areas, but suggest that rural single mothers with little education have not shared in the employment gains of similar urban single mothers. Some state analyses find more variable effects, with average employment increases in rural counties much smaller and less sustained than those of urban counties. The welfare-to-work transition is also more difficult in rural areas, which often lack access to transportation, job training, health care, and affordable child care. Welfare reform increased earnings of recipients to a lesser degree in rural areas than urban areas, and over one-third of rural working mothers were in poverty in 1999. Policy suggestions focus on access to health insurance and child care, tax supplements to support the work efforts of low-income families, improved job training, and increased flexibility for time limits and work requirements. (SV)

A study explored which nonexperimental comparison group methods provide the most accurate estimates of the impacts of mandatory welfare-to-work programs and whether the best methods work well enough to substitute for random assignment experiments. Findings were compared for nonexperimental comparison groups and statistical adjustment procedures with those for experimental control groups from a large-sample, six-state random assignment experiment--the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies. The methods were assessed in terms of their ability to estimate program impacts on annual earnings during short-run and medium-run follow-up periods. Findings with respect to the first issue suggested in-state comparison groups perform somewhat better than out-of-state or multi-state, especially for medium- run impact estimates; a simple difference of means or ordinary least squares regression can perform as well or better than more complex methods when used with a local comparison group; impact estimates for out-of-state or multi-state comparison groups are not improved substantially by more complex estimation procedures but are improved somewhat when propensity score methods are used to eliminate comparison groups that are not balanced on their baseline characteristics. Findings with respect to the second issue indicated the best methods did not work well enough to replace random assignment. Statistical analyses are appended. (Contains 51 references.) (YLB)

This study used data from the first and last waves of the 1996 U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation to compare the characteristics and wellbeing of low-income, single parent families before and after passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), noting the characteristics and wellbeing of low-income, single parent families headed by females in the post-PRWORA period. Results indicated that while the participation of many low-income single parents in the labor market substantially increased following implementation of welfare reform, millions of families remained in poverty, with their employment concentrated in low-wage occupations and industries (particularly among single mothers). Three years after passage of the PRWORA, although the population of low-income single parents was still predominantly female, there were significant changes in other key characteristics. Specifically, fewer welfare recipients were white, fewer had some college education, and more were concentrated in urban areas. The study concluded that poverty reduction should be the primary purpose of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. (SM)

A study requested by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs examined tribal implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Questionnaires were returned by TANF program directors in 34 states and by 148 American Indian tribes. Meetings were conducted with tribal leaders, program officials, and TANF officials in five states, and representatives of American Indian organizations and federal officials were interviewed. Despite tribal efforts to stimulate economic development, unemployment and poverty rates on reservations remain high, and prospects for economic growth may be limited. Barriers to economic growth on reservations include geographic isolation and lack of education and job skills. The number of American Indian families receiving TANF assistance has declined significantly in recent years. However, on some reservations caseloads have remained the same or increased, and in some states American Indians represent a large and increasing proportion of the total TANF caseload. To date, 172 tribes have designed and administered their own tribal TANF programs, which are allowed flexibility in program design. Rather than emphasizing job search and work, most programs encourage recipients to pursue education or training activities. Challenges in implementing tribal TANF programs include a lack of reliable data on the number of American Indian TANF recipients, lack of infrastructure support, and lack of experience and expertise in administering welfare programs. It is not yet clear whether the flexibility in program design provided to tribes will allow them to meet TANF goals given the economic circumstances on reservations. An appendix lists tribal TANF programs. (TD)

A study of research was conducted to determine how welfare and work policies enacted in 1996 targeted at low-income parents have influenced their adolescent children. Using meta-analytic techniques, the research synthesis integrates survey data collected from parents in eight studies of 16 different welfare and employment programs, focusing on children aged 12 to 18 when surveyed, as well as drawing on ethnographic case studies. In each study, some parents were randomly assigned to a program that included some combination of three key policies--mandatory employment activities, earnings supplements, and time limits on welfare receipt--while others were randomly assigned to a control group that was neither eligible for the program's services nor subject to its requirements. Key findings of the studies were the following: (1) parents in the programs being studied reported worse school performance, a higher rate of grade repetition, and more use of special educational services for their adolescent children than did control group parents; (2) no single one of the three policies studied could explain the programs' effects on adolescents; (3) adolescents with younger siblings experienced the most troubling effects (poor school performance, suspension or dropping out of school), perhaps because they were more likely than the control group to provide care for their siblings. The study points to the difficulties low-income parents face when forced to juggle often-inflexible mandatory work or training requirements and multiple child-care responsibilities. Study methodology is examined in two appendixes. (Contains 63 references.) (KC)

In August, 1997, the California State Legislature created CalWORKs as California's version of federal welfare reform, known nationally as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Cal WORKs provides that each eligible adult recipient may receive up to 60 months of assistance during their lifetime. All adult recipients must work or participate in welfare-to-work activities to remain eligible. This report, prepared for the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office for the Center for Law and Social Policy, describes state-funded programs and services offered to CalWORKs recipients enrolled in community colleges. In the 1999-2000 academic year, 107,087 CalWORKS recipients were enrolled in community colleges. Forty-three percent of those students received no financial aid. The Chancellor's Office tracks the employment and earnings of student recipients while they are in school and for several years after leaving through enrollment and state welfare records matching. CalWORKs students are parents, and are more likely to be women and ethnic minorities. They are also twice as likely as the general community college student body to not have a high school diploma. But studies find that CalWORKs and AFDC students close the earnings and employment gap over time. One year after leaving school, median annual earnings for CalWORKs students increased by 42%, while the earnings for the general student body increased by only 13%. (NB)

This brief updates the Urban Institute's "Income Support and Social Services for Low-Income People in California," an overview of benefits and services in California in 1997, just before the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 was enacted. Since 1997, various states have made changes across the spectrum of social safety net services. This update concentrates on several of these services: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits and employment services, workforce development, child care, and child welfare. It begins with a profile of California's population, economy, and politics, then reviews California's income support and social services safety net. The next three sections describe in detail current policies and recent changes in the areas of TANF and employment and training, child care, and child welfare. The final section provides conclusions about changes in these three social welfare policy areas. Information in the brief comes from interviews with program staff in Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties; interviews with state-level officials; interviews with child welfare administrators in 15 other counties; and focus groups with participants and nonparticipants in California's Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids welfare reform program. (SM)

Using data from a longitudinal sample of former and current welfare recipients in Michigan spanning 1997 through 1999, the Womens Employment Study, this analysis examined how transitions from welfare to work affect parenting behavior and child behavior problems. Researchers used a fixed-effects regression design to control for all time-invariant characteristics of mothers and children that might bias estimates of the associations between maternal work behavior and child well-being. The sample used was 575 women with a focal child (76% of the total study sample). Findings show that moving from welfare reliance to combining welfare and work is associated with a decrease in harsh parenting, an increase in positive parenting, and decreases in both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems among children. No evidence was found that parenting practices account for the associations between the transition from welfare to work and childrens behavior problems. Overall, these results suggest that policies that allow women to combine welfare and work may be most beneficial for children. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables, and 39 references.) (Author/SLD)

This brief presents 10 key findings about welfare reform, using research from the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project. Welfare reform has taken hold, and, in the immediate aftermath of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), states have made major changes to their welfare systems that reflect the transition from cash assistance to requiring and supporting work. Welfare caseloads remain dynamic, with a high frequency of leavers and returners. More people on welfare are working than in the past, due to such factors as changed reporting incentives, change in welfare recipients' behavior, and increased earnings disregards. Most welfare leavers are working, though many live on resources below the federal poverty level. States are doing more to support work, including shifting funds to child care, transportation support, tax credits for low-income families, and programs to support marriage. The work support system often does not meet the needs of workers; traditional welfare bureaucracies are not well suited to meet the needs of working families that face substantial constraints balancing work, family, and bureaucratic obligations. Deep hardship has increased, and the safety net post-PRWORA is less effective at supporting the neediest families than were previous programs. Family structure changes are modest; the effects of welfare reform on children remain unclear; and welfare's effects on different subgroups are varied. (Contains 34 references.) (SM)

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) gives states the flexibility to design programs to help low-income families move into employment. However, the law discourages states from allowing welfare recipients to participate in education and training programs. Because the law limits the extent to which education activities count toward federal work participation requirements, individuals are restricted in how long they can participate in training and receive services. This paper shows that skills matter in the labor market, even for entry-level jobs, and that welfare recipients' low skills are an obstacle to finding lasting employment and earning enough to support a family. Studies show that helping low-income parents increase their skills pays off in the labor market, particularly through participation in vocational training and postsecondary education and training. The paper explains why it is critical to improve access to education and training among welfare recipients as part of TANF reauthorization. It notes that mixed welfare-to-work strategies are the most effective type and highlights the Portland, Oregon, program, which emphasizes participation in a range of activities that are tailored individually and stress job quality. Finally, it examines when education and training pay off. Recommendations for TANF reauthorization are discussed. (SM)

This paper reports on the state of welfare after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) passed by Congress in 1996. The National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) is a federally initiated study that explores the questions of what works best and for whom. NEWWS evaluated seven areas across the country: Atlanta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Riverside, California; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Portland, Oregon. The NEWWS study examined two groups--one was required to participate in welfare-to-work programs or face monetary sanctions, and the other was not allowed to participate in welfare-to-work programs but could enroll in other services available in the community. Portland used a blend of labor force attachment (LFA) and human capital development (HCD) programs, while the other cities used one or the other. Portland significantly outperformed the other programs in terms of employment and earnings gains. The city showed an increase in average earnings of $5,150 in years 1-5, and a decrease in welfare payments of $2,746 during the same years. This paper examines the implications of these results for community colleges, and describes ways in which they can make their programs more flexible in order to better serve welfare recipients. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/NB)

A series of reviews of the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Job Access and Reverse Commute (Job Access) Program explored DOT's and grantees' challenges in implementing the Job Access program and the status of DOT's program evaluation efforts. DOT and grantees faced significant challenges in implementing the Job Access program. DOT's process for selecting Job Access grantees was not consistent and the basis for some selections was unclear. Grantees reported problems in meeting standard grant requirements necessary to obtain Job Access funding. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century required DOT to evaluate the Job Access program and issue a report to the congressional authorizing committees by June 2000. However, according to a DOT official, DOT had no estimated date for issuing the report. (YLB)

This report examines how state welfare-to-work programs have affected young children since the 1996 welfare reform act, which moved millions of women into low-wage jobs. Researchers followed a sample of 948 mothers and young children for 2-4 years after the women entered new welfare programs in California, Connecticut, and Florida. After interviews with these mothers, assessments of their children's development, and visits to homes and child care settings, several findings emerged. Many women had moved into low-wage jobs. Though their total income had risen significantly, most still lived below the poverty line. Related measures of economic wellbeing showed little improvement. For example, almost one-fifth of mothers had recently cut the size of meals because they did not have enough money to buy more food. The magnitude of income gains was too weak to improve home environments or allow women to move to better neighborhoods. Mothers were spending less time with their children as they went out to work. They displayed twice the national rate of clinical depression. Many children had moved into new child care centers and preschools. Those who move to center-based programs displayed significantly stronger cognitive and school readiness skills than children who remained in home-based programs. Measures and national norms are appended. (Contains 150 endnotes.) (SM)

Many policy proposals related to welfare will have the effect, intended or unintended, of encouraging teens to marry. This paper discusses the implications of teen marriage. Marriage is one route to reducing out-of-wedlock births to teens who become pregnant, but there is reason to believe such marriages are often unstable. A review of the available data leads the Center for Law and Social Policy to suggest that the government should temper enthusiasm for marriage with respect for the complexities of marriage and recognition of how little is known about how to promote marriage without raising additional concerns. An overview of teen marriage shows that much has changed in the last 40 years. Rates of teen marriage today vary by sex and race, but it is true that teens represent a diminishing share of women who give birth outside of marriage. Teen nonmarital fertility rates remain high, however. Data suggest that early marriages are the most unstable, which can jeopardize the marriages potential for economic good. Teen fathers may have fewer financial resources to contribute. Young mothers who marry are more likely to have a rapid second birth, and teen marriage may lead to decreased educational attainment for girls. It also appears that the high rates of abuse by intimates that young women experience suggest another reason to be cautious in advocating early marriage. For these teens who do marry, policymakers should provide support services to help them build strong relationships. (Contains 7 figures and 59 references.) (SLD)

The Sectoral Employment Development Learning Project (SEDLP) examined industry-based ("sectoral") approaches to employment training to determine whether they can help low-income individuals advance in the labor market. The SEDLP sample included 732 individuals at baseline, including 185 recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Of the 185 TANF recipients, 143 were interviewed 1 year after their SEDLP training and 94 were interviewed 2 years after the end of training. Of the TANF recipients surveyed 2 years after their SEDLP training, 68% were working year round; 45% received health insurance through their jobs; 48% had moved out of poverty based on their individual earnings alone, and 82% believed that their sectoral training program had improved their job or career prospects. It was recommended that TANF laws be revised to include the following provisions: (1) offer states flexibility to develop and implement appropriate education and training services for welfare recipients, including pre-employment training; (2) encourage states to invest in effective training, such as the industry-based training models studied in SEDLP; (3) encourage states to monitor outcomes such as employment, job retention, job quality, earnings, growth, and job advancement; and (4) provide sufficient funds to states to enable them to offer quality programs and monitor programs' effectiveness. (Contains 26 footnotes.) (MN)

This report focuses on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for low-income, uninsured children. It presents data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), which indicated that 72 percent of eligible children without any other coverage were covered by Medicaid in 1999, leaving over 4 million Medicaid-eligible children uninsured. Children with greater health services needs participated in Medicaid/SCHIP at higher rates than other children. There was variation in Medicaid and SCHIP participation among children in different racial/ethnic subgroups. Children were less likely to participate when their families had not previously been enrolled in welfare. (Contains 12 references.) (SM)

This report focuses on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for low-income, uninsured children. It examines the 2000 National Survey of American Families data, concluding that in 2000, over half of all children and about 90 percent of low-income children were eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP coverage. Nearly 70 percent of uninsured children who qualified for public coverage were actually eligible for Medicaid, not SCHIP. Although many states had implemented policies to facilitate enrollment and increase retention, states were more willing to do so under SCHIP than Medicaid. (Contains 15 references.) (SM)

Data from the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) in 13 states for 1997 and 1999 was used to study how welfare reform policies, mandated by the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, affected employment of single mothers with children. The states were Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. The study found that, in general, there were increases in employment consistent with national data that show steadily increasing employment for single women with children over this time period. For high school graduates, an increase of about 5 percent in currently employed single mothers with children and an increase of about 7 percent in weeks worked last year among single mothers in the group of states was recorded. Contrary to expectations, the study also found that individual state welfare-reform policies did not have a differential effect on increases of single mothers previously on welfare finding and keeping employment. The increases were about the same in all 13 states, when accounting for general economic trends. (Contains 13 references.) (KC)

Studies of nearly a dozen welfare programs were reviewed to determine the effects of welfare policies on children and youth and to identify issues requiring consideration during reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The following were among the key findings: (1) the school achievement of elementary school-age children are improved by welfare programs that increase both parental employment and income by providing earnings supplements to welfare recipients when they go to work; (2) programs that mandate participation in employment-related services typically increase parental employment but not income and have few short- or long-term effects on elementary school-age children; (3) although time-limited welfare programs can be implemented in ways that avoid widespread harm for elementary school-age children, the combination of earnings supplements with short time limits on welfare may reduce the positive effects that such supplements bring to children; (4) adolescents' school achievement and progress have been negatively affected by their parents' participation in both voluntary and mandatory programs promoting work and programs with and without time limits on benefit receipt; and (5) some evidence suggests that the observed negative effects on adolescents result from "child care problems" associated with maternal employment. (Contains 11 endnotes and 6 references.) (MN)