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…

These two Kids Count brief reports discuss issues related to the well-being of Rhode Island children. The first report identifies ways to measure the impact of state and federal welfare reform proposals on children who receive benefits through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Potential measures of success for welfare reform include…

Implementation is the challenge facing any attempts to reform the U.S. welfare service system. Without consideration of an implementation strategy, a reform plan will be destined to fail. Because many planners of welfare reform may be unfamiliar with program initiation, planners need a guide to assist implementation. This report provides planners…

This newsletter double issue is totally devoted to this report. The report presents an overview of recent policy changes related to job training and education for welfare recipients. It also presents the findings of research on several types of job training programs, discusses the data on the economic value of basic and higher education, and…

A study examined major performance standards issues in the context of employment and training programs targeted toward the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) population. Telephone interviews were conducted with representatives from Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) programs and departments of public welfare in nine states. A…

In recent years the delivery of social services in public welfare agencies has been separated from income maintenance responsibilities. This change has received support from many sources, including social workers. However, no systematic effort has been made to ascertain welfare recipients' response to separation. This report describes a field…

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)

This brief summarizes the report, "Getting and Retaining Child Care Assistance: How Policy and Practice Influence Families' Experiences," examining subsidy policies and practices that affect subsidy utilization, including those that affect every interaction the parent has with the subsidy agency and those that affect the ease of applying…

Nationwide, public attention has increasingly focused on the need for a variety of early care and education arrangements to meet the changing needs of families. The demand for early care and education has grown for families from all socioeconomic sectors, intensifying as participants in welfare-to-work programs enter the workforce, and as work…

This report describes the degree and nature of hardship among low-income and poor working and nonworking families in a nationally representative sample of kindergartners--the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten Cohort). Five hardship indicators were examined: (1) lack of child health insurance; (2) child has not seen doctor at least…

Reports that 80% of community colleges have implemented programs targeting welfare recipients. Examines policies affecting community college participation in welfare-to-work programs, and how, why, and to what extent community colleges are responding to these initiatives. Identifies qualities of some of the most successful programs. Includes five…

Describes provisions, implementation processes, and successes of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Welfare-to-Work grants to promote employment of the least employable welfare recipients, including many in rural poverty areas. Addresses other welfare modifications concerning legal immigrants, disabled children, food stamp recipients,…

Addresses the relationship of education and training to employment and how this discourse shapes policy and programs for public assistance recipients and dislocated workers. Problematic assumptions about how education and training affect employment are discussed, along with statistical data that raise questions about these assumptions. Race,…

Current debates about the success of TANF reforms have been obscured by the use of inconsistent indicators of success, as well as by measurement difficulties associated with alternative indicators. This paper considers conceptual and measurement issues associated with three different indicators of economic well-being: independence from public…

Declines in the welfare caseload in the late 1990s brought significant change to the lives of many low-educated, single mothers. Many single mothers left welfare and entered the labor market and others found different ways to avoid going on public assistance. These changes may have affected the health and health behaviors of these women. To date,…