To learn more about how welfare reform affects children, a child-focused study was conducted as part of the larger Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) evaluation. This study assess the impacts of mothers' mandatory participation in welfare-to-work programs on outcomes for children using a sample of 790 participants. It provides an early look at the experiences and characteristics of mothers and their preschool-aged children receiving aid to families with dependent children in one of three sites in Fulton County (Georgia). On an assessment of school readiness, 4 in 10 children answered half or fewer than half of the items correctly, suggesting that many lack needed skills for school. Two-thirds of the women in this study have only one or two children, and most had positive attitudes toward work, findings that contradicted some common stereotypes about welfare mothers. Important changes were underway within just a few months of entering the JOBS program, with the most obvious change being the substantial increase in the proportion of children in child care on a regular basis. Women in program groups were also more likely to have participated in education or job training programs since entering the evaluation. Early data suggest that mandatory work or training has the potential to affect the lives of two generations. Five appendixes discuss study methodology, and present three instruments used in the study. (Contains 7 tables, 41 figures, 24 tables in Appendix B, and 159 references.) (SLD)