Status Report on Research on the Outcomes
of Welfare Reform

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Bobby P. Jindal
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Don Winstead
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy

June 2002

This report is available on the Internet at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/welf-ref-outcomes02/index.htm

How to Obtain a Printed Copy

Contents

Chapters:

1. Introduction and Overview
   • Background
   • General Strategies for Understanding the Outcomes of Welfare Reform
   • Future Directions
   • Activities that Support Conferees' Recommendations
   • Organization of the Report
2. Findings/Results from Outcomes-Funded Projects
   • Findings from Completed Welfare Outcomes-Funded Studies
     • Synthesis of Welfare Outcomes Grants
     • Mental Health and Employment Among Welfare Recipients
     • National Academy of Sciences Panel Study on Welfare Outcomes
     • Access to Welfare Outcomes Data Sets
     • Grants to States and Localities to Enhance Studies of Welfare-Related Outcomes
     • Supporting Families After Welfare Reform: Access to Medicaid, S-CHIP and Food Stamps
     • Low-Income/Low-Skilled Workers' Involvement in Nonstandard Employment (formerly Low-Income/Low-Skilled Workers' Involvement in the Temporary/Contingent Employment Sector)
     • Linking State TANF Policies to Outcomes: A Preliminary Assessment
     • Alternative Kinship Care Programs Set up Outside of TANF and Foster Care
     • Welfare Reform and the Health and Economic Status of Immigrants and the Organizations that Serve Them
     • Researcher Initiated Grants on Welfare Outcomes
     • Low-Income Families: Coping as Parents and Workers (formerly How Low-Wage Working Families Cope as Parents and Workers)
     • The Feasibility of Replicating the Women's Employment Study
     • Trends in the Economic Well-Being of Low-Income Americans
     • Iowa State University Project: Considerations for Designing State-Surveys to Support Integration with National Survey Data (formerly Support for Iowa State University SPD Project
     • Technical Assistance to Welfare Outcomes Grantees (incorporates Technical Assistance on Researcher Access to Data Sets)
     • Research Technical Assistance on State Child Indicators Initiatives
   • Interim products from Continuing Welfare Outcomes-funded Studies
     • Grants to States and Localities to Study Welfare Reform Outcomes, with an Emphasis on Diversion
     • Describing State Initiatives to Promote and Support Marriage
     • The Link Between Marriage and Low-Income Family Well-Being (formerly How Important is Marriage to Low-Income Family Well-Being?)
     • Evaluation of State Programs of Abstinence Education
3. Projects Proposed to Be Funded by the FY 2002 Appropriation to Study Welfare Outcomes
   • Introduction
   • Working Toward Independence
     • The Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project
     • Spending on Social Welfare Programs in Rich and Poor States
     • A Profile of Families Cycling On and Off Welfare
     • Implementation of TANF Sanctions
     • Wage Progression and the Dynamics of the Low-Wage Labor Market
     • Serving TANF and Low-Income Populations through Workforce Investment Act One-Stop Centers
     • Evaluation of NY Welfare Intervention for Substance Abusing TANF/GA Recipients
     • Study of Child Support and TANF Interaction
     • The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), TANF, and Medicaid Database
     • Private Employers and Welfare Reform: Current Practices and their Implications for TANF
     • Welfare Closed Cases - job entry and earnings: Data Match TANF - FPLS: Data Matching to Assess Welfare Outcomes for the 50 States and the District of Columbia
     • Project on Devolution and Urban Change
     • Partners for Fragile Families Evaluation
     • Analysis of Topics Related to Marriage: Program Supports for Married and Two-Parent Families
     • Child Outcomes in State Welfare Evaluation
     • State Use and Reporting of TANF Administrative Data
     • Building Administrative Data Capacity Around Low-Wage Employment Outcomes
     • Aggregated Data by State on the Web
   • Rallying the Armies of Compassion
     • State and Local Contracting for Social Services under Charitable Choice
     • Ongoing Support to the New Immigrant Survey
     • Support for the NGA Re-Entry Leadership Project
     • Study of Children in TANF Child Only Cases with Relative Caregivers
   • Crosscutting Issues
     • Support for the Research Forum
     • Support for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
4. Update on Continuing Projects Funded by the FY 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 Appropriations to Study Welfare Outcomes
   • Competitive Grant Programs
     • Continuation of 1998 Grants to States and Localities to Study Welfare Outcomes
     • Grants to States and Localities to Study Welfare Reform Outcomes, with an Emphasis on Diversion
     • Grants to States and Localities to Enhance Studies of Welfare-Related Outcomes
     • State Studies of TANF Caseload
     • Researcher Initiated Grants on Welfare Outcomes
   • Projects to Improve Data Collection, Comparability or Capacity-Building
     • Support to the New Immigrant Survey
     • State and Local Telephone Survey to Assess the Incidence of Children with Special Health Care Needs
     • Support for the Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism Database and Web Site
     • Use of Social Security Summary Earnings Records to Assess Welfare Reform Outcomes
     • Project on Child Outcomes: Enhancing Measurement of Child Outcomes in State Welfare Evaluations and Other State Data Collections
     • Survey Development for State Studies of TANF Caseload
     • A Study of Families on TANF in Illinois (formerly Analysis of Survey Data on the TANF Caseload in Illinois)
     • Small Grant Program on Use of HHS-Sponsored Data Sets
     • Measures of Material Hardship (formerly Measures of Family Hardship)
     • Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Core Support and Expanded Sample for Child Supplement
     • Improving State Child and Youth Indicators of Health and Well-Being
   • Analytic Projects on Welfare-Related Topics
     • Transition Events in the Dynamics of Poverty
     • Quick Turnaround Analyses under Welfare Reform
     • Implementation of Welfare Reform at the Local Level: Implications for Special Populations
     • Understanding the Declines in Teen Birth Rate
     • From Prisons to Home: The Effect of Incarceration on Children, Families, and Low-Income Communities
     • Learning from State Corrections and Human Services Collaborations: From Prison to Home - Part II
     • Poor Families with Infants and Toddlers
     • Enhancement of the Study of Trends in Emergency Assistance Related to TANF (incorporates Trends in the Demand for Assistance Services)
     • Welfare Reform and Its Implications for Persons with Disabilities
     • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Time Limits
     • Welfare Reform and Children
     • Synthesis of Literature on Family Composition and Resource Sharing
     • Follow-up Work on Minnesota Family Investment Program Evaluation
     • Case Studies of State Initiatives to Reduce Out-of-Wedlock Births
   • Other Projects
     • Project on Devolution and Urban Change
     • Continuation of New Jersey Welfare/Substance Abuse Evaluation
     • Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS)
     • Demonstration and Evaluation of Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ
     • Support for Working Families and Their Children
     • Evaluation of State Programs of Abstinence Education
     • Case Studies on Privatization of Service Delivery and Performance-Based Contracting

• Appendix.  Grants to States and Localities to Study Welfare Reform Outcomes, with an Emphasis on TANF Applicants and Diversion:  Synthesis of Findings

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Last updated:  11/14/02