Child care plays a vital role in our nation's economy. COVID-19 has largely shut down child care programs and schools across the nation, presenting challenges for working parents. Child care closures are a particularly acute problem for frontline and essential workers--health care personnel, grocery store staff, postal and delivery service…

Earning a college degree has long been critical to unlocking many high-paying jobs -- and, as a result, to economic mobility and security. Increasingly, however, the traditional "norm" of a college student--one who enrolls straight out of high school, receives some support from their parents, lives on campus, and does not have…

Early care and education providers are subject to monitoring by multiple agencies and organizations. In this brief provides an overview of monitoring and the major early care and education monitoring systems. It then offers possible goals for a coordinated monitoring system and describes some approaches to addressing those goals. Eleven dimensions…

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) reauthorized the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant and made modifications expected to strengthen work requirements for families receiving cash assistance through state TANF programs. Both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and states were required to take steps to…

Amid a recession that's squeezing state budgets and pushing more families into poverty, teams of officials from 39 states gathered near Washington last week to explore ways to better meet the educational and health needs of young children. The Sept. 16-18 meeting, sponsored by the National Governors Association, came as the U.S. House of…

The welfare initiative signed into law in August 1996 replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The federal responsibility to match state expenditures on cash assistance to low-income families with children has become a fixed block grant to states with requirements that focus on a…

In 1996 the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was replaced with a federal block grant program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which imposed time limits and work requirements on welfare recipients. The welfare legislation placed a lifetime ban on TANF and food stamp benefits for convicted drug felons, although…

This document focuses on how states can use Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to support early childhood education initiatives. It draws on CLASP's previous report, "Financing Universal Pre-Kindergarten: Possibilities and Technical Issues for States in Using Funds Under the Child Care and Development Fund and Temporary…

This report provides information on the proposed Child Care and Development Block Grant Amendments Act of 1995, which reauthorizes and amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990. It also makes changes in the 1990 law to give states greater flexibility in designing their child care system, provides greater emphasis on parental…

Intended to help state planners understand and coordinate their program efforts, the guide provides an analysis of major federally funded programs for handicapped and at-risk children from birth to age 6. The following programs and their legislative authority are considered: Medicaid (Title XIX of the Social Security Act); The Early and Periodic…

In response to proposed reforms designed to replace many federal child welfare programs with block grants to states, this report describes a study of recent trends foster care, resources for foster care and child welfare services, and state responses to current foster care and child welfare service needs. The study reviewed research on foster care…

This congressional report contains testimony given at an oversight hearing on the termination of the Community Services Administration (CSA) and the subsequent transition to the community services block grant program. Among those organizations and agencies represented at the hearing were the following: the National Community Action Agency; the…

Patterns of spending federal aid have shifted since Chapter 2 of the 1981 Education Consolidation and Improvement Act combined 29 existing programs into one block grant and placed the responsibility for allocating the funds with the states and local districts. Since 1982-83 Chapter 2 appropriations were 14.4 percent below funding for the…

This report provides an overview of major differences between current law and the House and Senate versions of educational legislation (H.R. 5) expected to be considered early in the second session of the 100th Congress, as well as a side-by-side comparison of the current and proposed legislation. Program areas covered in both the overview and the…

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 means that, for the first time, the federal government has shifted substantial responsibility for maintaining a social safety net for the most vulnerable populations to the state governments. This guide summarizes the contents of the new law, identifies…