While college costs have risen significantly in the past few decades, some of those cost increases can be partially mitigated by financial aid for low-income families. But many low- and moderate-income families vastly overestimate the cost of college, leading them to assume that enrolling their children in college, particularly a four-year school,…

The Illinois Child Care Collaboration Program promotes collaboration between child care and other early care and education providers, including Early Head Start (EHS), by creating policies to ease blending of funds to extend the day or year of existing services. While no funding is provided through the initiative, participating programs may take…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 purports to reform welfare policy and encourage parents to achieve self-sufficiency, but the legislation raises many problems for children and their families. This guide is designed to highlight an array of decisions regarding the most important welfare and child care…

The General Accounting Office assessed the extent to which states were coordinating their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services with their one-stop centers. Data were gathered through the following activities: (1) an autumn 2001 survey of workforce development agency officials in all 50 states and a similar survey conducted in…

Collaboration between welfare and workforce development agencies has increased since the implementation of welfare reform. Federal legislation, state and local policy-making environments, and the capacity of potential partners to serve an agency's clients affect agency collaboration. The following broad approaches to collaboration have been…

A study collected information on the participation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in work and work activities and their characteristics and how they have changed over time. Data were gathered on strategies states use to help hard-to-employ (HTE) TANF recipients get and keep jobs and on challenges states face in…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed existing procedures to manage Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) contracting and also identified problems with regard to management of TANF contracting. The major data collection activities were as follows: (1) a national survey of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the 10 counties…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the state and local coordination of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Investment Act (WIA) services for TANF clients. Data were gathered though the following activities: (1) analysis of surveys of WIA officials in all 50 states that were conducted in 2001 and 2000; (2) visits…

The effect of welfare time limits on families in different states was examined in a comprehensive study that involved the following activities: (1) a survey of state welfare administrators regarding states' time-limit policies and experiences to date; (2) site visits to five states; and (3) a synthesis of research on time limits. The following…

Progress in integration of state-level welfare and work force development systems in the Midwest was examined through case studies of 10 communities in 7 states. The case studies focused on local-level coordination and/or integration between the welfare and work force development systems. Despite legislative mechanisms to encourage collaboration,…

Unemployment wage data were evaluated to assess employment, job retention, and wage progression for graduates of Community Jobs (CJ), a short-term public job creation program for the hard to employ in the state of Washington. The following were among the findings: (1) 66% of all participants were employed after graduating from CJ; (2) 53% were…

This Congressional report contains the testimony and documents presented for the record of the first of two hearings to gather testimony on the effects of welfare reform and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The oral and written testimony focuses on TANF legislation's outcomes and impact on work and families in…

This Congressional report contains the testimony and documents presented for the record at the second of two hearings on the effects of welfare reform and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Other areas receiving particular attention from witnesses included the impacts of education and training on employment patterns…