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Date: Saturday, May 4, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HHS Press Office (202)690-6343
Today, President Clinton announced four measures to make responsibility the law of the land, by ensuring that teen mothers on welfare stay in school and live at home. These four executive actions include: requiring all states to submit plans for requiring teen mothers to stay in school and prepare for employment; cutting through red tape to allow states to pay cash bonuses to teen mothers who finish high school; requiring all states to have teen mothers who have dropped out of school return to school and sign personal responsibility plans; and challenging all states to require minor mothers to live with a responsible adult. With these actions, we're focusing on one of the key components of welfare reform: parental responsibility. And we're putting young mothers on the right path, toward employment and self-sufficiency.
REQUIRING TEEN MOTHERS TO STAY IN SCHOOL
Currently, 26 states require teen parents to stay in school to receive assistance, 23 under waivers approved by the Clinton Administration. Ohio, for example, has a model program called LEAP: Learning, Earning, and Parenting. LEAP reduces checks of teen mothers when they don't go to school, and pays them a bonus when they do. Other states are trying similar approaches with our support. For example, Delaware reduces benefits for truancy, and pays teen mothers a $50 bonus when they graduate from high school. Colorado pays bonuses when teen mothers graduate from high school or receive a GED.
These states are putting teen mothers on the right path, toward employment and self-sufficiency -- and all 50 states around the country should follow their lead. That's why the President is directing all states to submit plans to require school attendance among teens who receive welfare. And to be sure they do, the Department of Health and Human Services will do annual surveys of their success.
ALLOWING STATES TO REWARD TEEN MOTHERS WHO COMPLETE HIGH SCHOOL
Today, President Clinton is also cutting through red tape to allow states to reward teen mothers who stay in school and complete high school, in addition to sanctioning those who don't. States would be able to give teen mothers cash bonuses for strong school attendance, graduating from high school, or GED receipt -- without requesting a waiver.
REQUIRING TEEN MOTHERS TO SIGN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PLANS
Today, the Clinton Administration is requiring all 50 states to ensure that teen mothers on welfare who have dropped out of school both return to school and sign personal responsibility plans. These actions will help teen mothers plan for their futures and turn their lives around.
REQUIRING MINOR MOTHERS TO LIVE AT HOME
Under current law, states have the option to require minor mothers to live at home -- but only 21 states have such requirements, 11 initiated under waivers granted by the Clinton Administration and 10 adopted under the state option. Today, the Clinton Administration is challenging all 50 States to put minor mothers on the right track by requiring them to live at home or with a responsible adult in order to receive assistance.
ENDING WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT
The President's goals for welfare reform are clear: requiring work, promoting responsibility, and protecting children. With this new initiative, President Clinton underscores his commitment to helping welfare recipients become -- and stay -- self-sufficient. President Clinton continues to call for a national welfare reform bill that gets these priorities right. Under welfare reform waivers, we've already freed 37 states from red tape to pursue innovative welfare reforms -- more than under any previous administration. State welfare demonstrations approved by the Clinton Administration now cover 75 percent of all welfare recipients nationwide.