Although it has been assumed that increasing maternal education or family income will improve children's well-being, considering the impact on child care arrangements and home environment raises the possibility of negative effects. This paper reviews experimental evaluations of seven programs designed to enhance welfare families' self-sufficiency,…

Presentations at this conference dealt with the transformation of the child welfare system through community partnerships, and the presenters explore various aspects of forming partnerships among public agencies and community organizations. There are some excellent examples of such partnerships, but evaluation findings on "best practice"…

As a condition of receiving federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, states are required to operate Child Support Enforcement (CSE) programs. Families receiving TANF are required to participate in the CSE program; families not receiving TANF may also request CSE services. However, since 1994, an increasing number of states…

Examines how welfare workers in one county view separation of services in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program in a public welfare agency. Analyzes how workers perceive the quality of their interactions with clients and the clients' satisfaction with services. (Author)

The use of nonparametric quartile regression in examining the impacts of social programs on the distributions of noncategorical outcome measures is demonstrated through the study of earnings effects and income effects in four evaluations of training and employment programs for welfare recipients. Distributional impact estimates yield estimates…

L. Ku supports the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program as effective in improving children's health. D. Besharov and P. Germanis reiterate their earlier criticisms that the program is less effective than commonly believed and that research evidence about its effectiveness is flawed. (SLD)

Rigorous evaluations of welfare-to-work programs have had a major impact on the formation of policy in the area of welfare reform, but it is not clear whether the high level of evaluation, especially with regard to randomized experiments, and impact can continue. Evaluators must strive for research methodologies that provide results for policy…

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…

As of June 1995, the federal government had granted to 28 states waivers from current federal laws and regulations, allowing states to test a wide range of welfare reform approaches. This study, conducted by the National Center for Children in Poverty, examined the evaluation plans of 21 waiver experiments in 17 states, focusing on the impact of…

The Food Stamp Program is the U.S. government's primary program to prevent the rural poor from going hungry. Food stamp allotments are set each year based on the cost of the "Thrifty Food Plan" (TFP), a minimally adequate diet defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which sets costs by examining average food prices in urban…

This country has long debated the question of how to design the welfare system, particularly the federally supported Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program which provides cash assistance to families headed primarily by female single parents. A pressing issue is whether welfare programs should continue to be broad entitlements or…

Local results of the Work Incentive (WIN) Program, the first nationwide employment program with the clear objective of serving female heads of families, are reported on. Two WIN projects operating in labor markets of different characteristics--one relatively stable and prosperous, the other subject to seasonal fluctuation but showing some sign of…

Evaluation of the Work Incentive Program (WIN) indicates that this employment and supportive services program has been very effective in serving welfare recipients with poor work histories on a cost-effective basis. Subsidized public employment is particularly effective in increasing employment and earnings. (MF)

Suggests four criteria (efficiency, return on investment, incentives, and equity) for evaluating and comparing public programs for poor children, and provides an overview of information available on eight large federal programs using these criteria. Positive effects of some programs are noted, and policy recommendations the evidence supports are…

This evaluation of Massachusett's Employment and Training Choices (ET) program indicates that instead of saving taxpayers money, the program has been costly and has contributed little or nothing to reduce the state's welfare caseload. ET offers welfare recipients a wide variety of employment services, including career planning and job search,…