Public spending on children aims to support their healthy development, helping them fulfill their human potential. As such, federal spending on children is an investment in the nation's future. To inform policymakers, children's advocates, and the general public about how public funds are spent on children, this 12th edition of the annual…

Public spending on children by federal, state, and local governments is an investment in the nation's future because it supports children's healthy development, helping them fulfill their potential. To help interested stakeholders assess the government's investment in children, this 11th edition of the annual "Kids' Share" report…

Despite the claimed success of the 1996 Welfare Reform, little research using multivariate regression has examined changes in multiple public safety-net programs. Thus, we still do not know whether public safety-net programs for the poor have shrunk or increased nationwide, along with the sharp declines in cash assistance. Using state-level data…

"Kids' Share 2016: Federal Expenditures on Children through 2015," a 10th annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Federal spending on children has remained fairly flat over the past four years, in real dollars. Broader budgetary forces will restrict spending on children over the next 10…

"Kids' Share 2012: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2011," a sixth annual report, looks comprehensively at trends over the past 50 years in federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Key findings suggest that the size and composition of expenditures on children have changed considerably, but children have not…

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 provision of Federal aid is more limited in United States territories and possessions than it is in the states. These areas are generally exempt from Federal taxes as an incentive to their economic self-reliance. This study analyzes the impact of extending full Federal aid and income taxes to these areas. Although Federal spending in these…

The provisions of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-272 of the 96th Congress) are delineated in this legislative bulletin. The primary purposes of the Act are (1) to establish a program of adoption assistance; (2) to strengthen the program of foster care assistance for needy and dependent children; and (3) to…

"Learnfare" is a term applied to the mandating of school attendance for teen parents and/or school age dependent children in households receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits as a condition of continued eligibility. This idea emanates from policymakers' concern about high truancy and dropout rates generally,…

In 1981, Congress enacted major legislative changes that affect the availability of child care for low-income families. In the name of economic recovery, tax cuts were enacted, social service programs were merged into a block grant, and government benefits for poor families were substantially reduced. This article reviews these statutory changes…

Examines the extent to which personal, attitudinal, psychosocial, and human capital characteristics affect welfare-to-work training programs. Assesses these characteristics as predictors of post-program earnings. Results suggest that the personal and social characteristics that participants bring with them to the training program does affect…

Society has moral and economic obligations to assist the urban poor to overcome adverse conditions. A national urban policy designed to ameliorate substandard conditions is recommended along with realistic policies and programs of effective schooling. The urban poor have a responsibility to accept and use the help offered to them. (Author/VM)

Study of one state's first-time welfare recipients found less evidence of welfare dependency than previously reported. Argues that client self-sufficiency hinges on an investment strategy in education, work preparedness, job training, and public-sector jobs, along with the provision of supportive services, such as child care. (RJM)

The U.S. is one of the few economically developed nations without a national policy supporting children and their families. This paper suggests that the U.S. has a unique national ideology, based on the Calvinist ethic, that results in opposition to all government-supported welfare programs. (CB)

This paper explores interactions between social welfare programs and associated supportive taxation programs. Focus was on the effect of one program on another, effects of one program on a set of other programs, effects of tax and benefit reduction rates, and effects of interacting programs on the governments that create/maintain them. (TJH)