To highlight the individual and systemic practices that perpetuate the overuse of and reliance on kinship care and instead emphasize family reunification as the permanency plan for African American children in the child welfare system, the authors first discuss how kinship care is affected by federal child welfare policy and provide a historical…

The promotion of marriage and two-parent families became an explicit public policy goal with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Marriage has the putative effect of reducing welfare dependency among single mothers, but only if they marry men with earnings sufficient to lift them and their children out of poverty. Newly released data from…

In most states, child support paid on behalf of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants is used to offset TANF and child support administrative expenditures; this policy primarily benefits taxpayers. In contrast, Wisconsin allowed most custodial parents to keep all support paid on their behalf. This policy, which treats welfare…

Advocates, policymakers, and researchers have predicted that changes in the welfare system brought about by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 would increase the number of children who are abused and neglected, referred to child protective services, and placed in foster care. This study examined how welfare…

Describes child support provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Outlines federal requirements for state child support enforcement programs, including a new-hire reporting system; streamlined paternity establishment processes; uniform interstate child support; computerized collections; tougher penalties;…

This paper argues that the U.S.'s experience during the economic boom of the 1990s, together with its choices concerning social welfare policies, imply that child poverty in the United States will be much higher than that in most European countries. It hypothesizes that Americans reveal their preferences about the extent of poverty they are…

This paper presents findings from the 2001 Urban Institute Child Welfare Survey, which collected SFY 2000 expenditures. In addition to spending by source and by use, changes in spending between SFY 1998 and SFY 2000 are presented. This survey was designed to identify changes in child welfare spending following states' implementation of the…

Public enforcement of private child support obligations transfers income from nonresident parents to resident parents (mostly mothers) or, if the mother is receiving welfare, to the state. This paper reviews and synthesizes existing literature on the effects of this transfer of income and presents new empirical evidence on the effects of stronger…

Describes opportunities and challenges for states presented by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Discusses the plan to pay incentives to states and the possibility for greater flexibility in the state welfare program. Predicts increases in expectations for effectiveness and efficiency in child support enforcement…

The child support reform provisions within the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) have been markedly successful in improving child support enforcement efforts. Child support is an important part of the mix of supports necessary to assist welfare recipients to make the transition to work and…

Michigan is a leader in state efforts to gain more autonomy over social service programs. Many changes, including those made to the child care and child welfare systems, were part of the governor's blueprint for reform, To Strengthen Michigan Families. This report begins with a profile of Michigan's demographic, economic, and political conditions,…

Wisconsin's new welfare program was a dramatic departure from the old income maintenance system of welfare and moved beyond other states' work-based welfare reform programs. This report describes Wisconsin's approach to welfare reform, using data collected in 1999 and 2000 from state and local administrators, direct service providers, and, in some…

Colorado's welfare reform legislation significantly departs from the state's traditional emphasis on education and training while further embracing a decentralized administrative structure. The state's welfare system has shifted from an education and training model to a work-first model. This report presents findings from data collected in 1999…

This brief presents 10 key findings about welfare reform, using research from the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project. Welfare reform has taken hold, and, in the immediate aftermath of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), states have made major changes to their welfare systems that…

This analysis examines poverty in families headed by working single mothers, addressing whether and to what degree their economic situations have improved. It investigates the effect of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which moved single mothers from welfare to work. Poverty data from the annual Census…