Wisconsin's influential Learnfare initiative is a conditional cash "penalty" program that sanctions a family's welfare grant when covered teens fail to meet school attendance targets. In the presence of reference-dependent preferences, Learnfare provides uniquely powerful financial incentives for student performance. However, a 10-county…

The School Attendance Demonstration Project (SADP) was designed to improve school attendance among teenagers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits in San Diego County, California. An impact study was conducted from March 10, 1996 to March 10, 1998, to evaluate the effects of providing social services and imposing…

Wisconsin's Learnfare program requires 13- to 19-year-old recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to maintain good school attendance or risk losing a portion of their families' grants. The program offers those with attendance problems the opportunity to work with case managers to identify causes of their poor attendance, as…

Financial incentives for teen parents are components of state welfare programs intended to encourage enrollment, attendance, and completion of high school as a means of increasing employment and earnings and reducing welfare dependence. The incentives take the form of bonuses and sanctions to the welfare grant related to school enrollment,…

This report presents new findings on the effectiveness of Ohio's Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) Program in Cleveland as well as initial results from the Cleveland Student Parent Demonstration, a special project undertaken as part of the LEAP evaluation. LEAP is a statewide initiative that uses financial incentives and penalties to promote…

The Wisconsin "Learnfare" policy requires that teenagers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) attend school regularly until they have completed high school. The population of teen parents and dependent teens receiving AFDC from September 1988 through December 1989 included 22,241 males and 30,995 females. About half…

This research brief, one of a series being prepared to help inform the public debate surrounding the reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, uses data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families to examine the outcomes for children of welfare leavers and current welfare recipients; outcomes examined…

An analysis of Ohio's Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) program focused on the first 18 months of program operations. The 12 randomly selected research counties contained about two-thirds of the statewide teen population targeted by LEAP. The analysis relied on field research, supplemented by data collected from county human service agencies…

New Chance was designed as a research and demonstration program to improve the economic status and general well-being of highly disadvantaged young women and their children. The program was directed toward mothers aged 16 to 22 who were high school dropouts and receiving welfare. Sixteen sites in 10 states that had some prior experience in serving…