Summarizes efforts by state governments to regulate managed care and examines the various actions that states have initiated to credential managed care plans that desire to provide care for Medicaid beneficiaries. In the long run, organizations other than state regulatory agencies may be better equipped to regulate managed care. (SLD)

States where a large proportion of the poor are rural residents or racial/ethnic minorities provided less welfare support per poor child under Aid to Families with Dependent Children than did other states. No corresponding rural or racial/ethnic disadvantage was observed for the Food Stamp program, which has nationwide eligibility criteria and…

Reviews services provided to 120 children (62 experimental and 58 control) by state welfare agencies. Finds that, over six years, children in the experimental groups required less supervision time, lived at home longer, and were in less-restrictive placements than those in the control group. (Author/JDM)

Discusses the failure to identify learning disabilities in female students and the long-term consequences, including dependency on welfare programs. Stresses the need to modify identification procedures to increase sensitivity to learning disabilities in females and to adjust special-education programs to meet the needs of females. (CR)

Summarizes the status of public funding for child protection, contrasts expenditures for foster care versus family services, and traces the links between public assistance and child protection policies. The possibility that the 1996 federal welfare reform law may increase the need for child welfare services and drive up costs of child protection…

During the 1990s, the South reduced welfare caseloads more than other regions, most likely due to a strong metropolitan economy. However, poverty, low levels of human capital investment, and a sluggish job market persist in many rural areas of the South, and participation in welfare programs would likely increase in an economic recession. Public…

Focuses on the experience and lessons learned from the effort by Wisconsin's Moraine Park Technical College to develop a welfare-to-work program. Emphasizes the importance of having a strong workforce-readiness component in the training program that focuses on soft skills, such as working cooperatively and communicating clearly. (AUTH/NB)

This article reports the results of an in-depth, descriptive study of long-term welfare recipients. A random sample of 284 respondents, all of whom had received public assistance for at least 36 months, were interviewed. Results illustrate personal barriers to self-sufficiency, including physical health problems that prevent work, severe domestic…

This paper presents an overall approach, statistical techniques, and a public-use database that can be used for understanding state welfare policies and measuring their relationship with key outcomes of interest, all while learning helpful statistical techniques. We use descriptive statistics and correlations to describe state policies. We find…

This study reports results from interviews with 157 research participants who were interviewed 3 years after randomization into treatment and control conditions in the evaluation of the Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court. The interviews asked about crime, substance use, welfare, employment, education, mental and physical health, and family and…

This article demonstrates a novel application of propensity score matching techniques: to estimate nonexperimental impacts on program participants within the context of an experimental research design. The author examines the relationship between program participation, defined as qualifying for an earnings supplement by working full-time, and…

In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, placing emphasis on individuals to take responsibility for separating themselves from governmental dependence by becoming economically self-sufficient through employment. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored the experiences…

The current non-system for dealing with the mentally disabled is expensive and inefficient and is the primary cause of a substantial proportion of all homelessness. A comprehensive national policy and the delegation of greater administrative responsibilities to private agencies would help to address the problem of the homeless mentally ill. (GC)

Federal policy has reduced public responsibility for families receiving AFDC and shifted responsibility for dependent children to their parents. Discusses how fostering parents' obligation to support their children can benefit families. Explores how an awareness of these benefits on the part of workers can improve social work practice. (Author)

To cope with high youth unemployment in Britain after World War I, unemployment benefits for juveniles were made contingent on attendance at local education centers. This article looks at the administrative structures, costs, staffing, curriculum, and effectiveness of these Juvenile Unemployment Centers in Scotland from 1919-1941. (SJL)