[ Main Page of Report | Contents of Report ]
Some of the ASPE leavers grantees (1) have findings that were not released in time to be included in the synthesis report (see Chapter II), or have not yet released a final report. These reports can be separated into two categories: those releasing their final reports from their studies funded in FY 1998, and those grantees that received additional funding in FY 1999 to extend the studies and administer a second or third wave of interviews, allowing analysis of longer-term outcomes for former recipients.
Studies Funded in FY 1998 (Wisconsin, Los Angeles County (CA), New York)
In November 2001, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released its final report on individuals and families who left the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program between April and December 1998. According to findings from the survey, about 58 percent of leavers were employed at the time they were interviewed, and 82 percent had been employed at some point since exit. Those W-2 leavers who were employed worked for an average of just over 35 hours per week, at wages averaging about $7.95 per hour. Four out of five leavers were receiving Medicaid, and 63 percent were receiving food stamps, in the fourth quarter following their exit from W-2. The majority of respondents (86 percent) with children under 13 reported having some child care arrangements while at work, and less than a third reported that a child care problem had interfered with their work efforts. Further, among survey respondents, 60 percent reported feeling better about themselves since leaving W-2, while only 7 percent reported feeling worse about themselves.
The Los Angeles County (CA) project was conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), and provided an addition to MDRC's Urban Change project with a focus on leavers. Cohorts were drawn from the third calendar quarters of 1996 and 1998. The project included analysis of ten years of full population administrative data developed for the Urban Change project, as well as a small mixed-mode sample survey drawn from a cohort surveyed between July and December 1999. This project and the Cuyahoga County, OH project, also by MDRC, effectively made up a two-site study that has allowed for comparisons while controlling for study design. Los Angeles also received funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to draw a sample of welfare leavers who received housing assistance, both through public housing and Section 8. MDRC and Los Angeles County have submitted a draft final report for this project to ASPE and it is expected to be released in Summer 2002.
New York's two-year study included both TANF exiters and individuals under sanction, whether or not they left assistance. The goals of the project included: determining the frequency of outcomes such as employment, job retention, use of transitional assistance and returns to assistance; identifying barriers to self-sufficiency; examining the effectiveness of sanction policies in changing behavior; and developing a longitudinal tracking capacity for welfare outcomes in New York City. The state used full population administrative data from TANF, SSI, food stamps, Medicaid, foster care, child support, and wage records to analyze cohorts from the first quarter of 1997 and the first or second quarter of 1999. The FY 1999 cohort involved a 900-case survey in the first quarter of 2000. The state released an interim report in July 1999 with administrative data findings on the first cohort of leavers. A revised version of this report was released in December 1999. A final report for this project has been submitted to ASPE and is expected to be released by the state in Summer 2002.
Studies Receiving FY99 Continuation Funding (Arizona, San Mateo County (CA), Missouri)
Three of the FY 1998 grantees - Arizona, Missouri, and a consortium of San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara counties - received additional funding in FY 1999 to extend their studies and administer a second or third wave of interviews, allowing analysis of longer-term outcomes for former recipients.
The Arizona study followed a large group of individuals who left cash assistance in the first three months of 1998 for two years. The state released its final report on the second year follow-up of leavers in October 2001. It found that many who left the rolls were self-sufficient after two years. Results from administrative data showed that fewer leavers utilized state services during the second year of the study compared the to the first year, and reported wages of employed leavers increased by 25 percent. However, those who were utilizing state services in the second year averaged more usage than they did in the first year. Surveys of the leavers showed that a majority of respondents felt their "general conditions" improved during both years of the study, though some particular indicators worsened in the second year.
Funding in FY 1999 allowed the SPHERE Institute to add a third survey at 18 months after exit and extend administrative data tracking of a cohort of individuals and families who left welfare in the fourth quarter of 1998 in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties, CA. The final report, released in November 2001, showed that conditions generally improved for leavers and informally diverted families over the 18-month follow-up period. In addition, trends in the awareness and use of transitional assistance were positive, but indicated room for future improvement. After 18 months, two-parent leaver families were somewhat better off than one-parent leaver families and families informally diverted from welfare.
The third grantee to receive continuation funding from ASPE in FY 1999, Missouri, has used the funding to more extensively track of their study cohort of those who left welfare in the fourth quarter of 1997. A final report on this follow-up study is expected from Missouri in Summer 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: varies by project
One of the Congress's major objectives in providing welfare outcomes money to ASPE over the last several years is to measure outcomes for a broad population of low-income families, welfare recipients, former recipients, potential recipients, and other special populations affected by state TANF policies, including diversion practices (2). To this end, ASPE issued a request for applications from states and large counties in April 1999 with an emphasis on the study of applicants and potential applicants to the TANF program. ASPE awarded seven grants under this announcement, six of which specifically support state efforts to gather a variety of information about individuals and their families who apply to TANF, including those who are formally or informally diverted. In addition, several of the leavers studies funded in FY 1998 had significant applicant components to their projects.
ASPE is particularly interested in learning about the degree to which TANF applicants receive, or are aware of their potential eligibility for, Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs and services that are important in helping low-income families make a successful transition to work. Below are summaries of the grants provided to states and large counties in fiscal years 1998 and 1999 with a particular emphasis on TANF applicants and diversion from TANF. "Diversion" in this context is not limited to participation in formal diversion programs, but also includes "informal" divertees. These are usually defined as individuals who began the application process but were either deemed ineligible for non-monetary reasons, withdrew voluntarily after completing the process, or failed to complete the process for some other reason. A synthesis of available findings is included in Appendix A.
New York (1999)
New York, which also received a FY 1998 leavers grant from ASPE, included divertees, all other denials, and entrants in their sample for this study. Their analysis has focused on comparing TANF applicants who were diverted with those who received cash assistance. Twenty-one local districts participated in the study, including New York City and other sites ranging from large urban to rural areas. In most districts, state researchers have used administrative data to track a March 2000 sample of divertees, denials, and entrants for 12 months after the application. The sample was drawn through intercept interviews with TANF applicants in each of the local districts using a methodology that allowed New York to include individuals who entered the TANF office with the intent to apply but who did not submit written applications. The state's contractor, ORC Macro, administered the survey to the sample of 864 families, evenly split between diverted applicants and entrants. The state is finishing up its analysis of the data and writing the final report.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Washington (1999)
Following up on the leavers grant that they received in FY 1998, Washington studied formal and informal divertees and entrants. The state compared the experiences of individuals who participated in the state's Diversion Cash Assistance program, those who entered TANF, and those who were diverted and received assistance from neither program. They have analyzed administrative data for the full populations of each of these groups from the fourth quarters of 1997, 1998, and 1999, including data from up to 12 months prior to and 12 months after the selection quarter. The state has nearly completed administrative data collection.
The state also surveyed individuals who applied for TANF or Diversion Cash Assistance between July and October of 1999. The survey was administered between four and eight months after the time of application. The draft final report has been submitted to ASPE and is currently undergoing revisions within the state.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Wisconsin (1998 and 2000)
This study of individuals applying for Wisconsin Works (W-2) assistance in Milwaukee has been undertaken by the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. This portion of the study focuses on three subgroups of applicants: those who request assistance and subsequently participate in the W-2 program, those who request assistance but are determined to be ineligible for program participation, and those who request assistance, appear to be eligible, but do not participate in W-2. A six-month cohort of applicants is being tracked through a combination of linked administrative data (e.g., public assistance, quarterly earnings, child support, foster care, and mental health data) and three waves of surveys, the third being funded by ASPE in FY 2000. A report detailing findings from Wave 1 of the survey, administered at the time of application, was released in July 2001, and a link to the report is posted on the ASPE web site. A report on Wave 2 of the survey is expected in Summer 2002. The third wave of the survey is currently in the field; a descriptive report on this survey is expected in late fall 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: Winter 2003
The purpose of these grants is to enhance state-specific surveys of populations affected by welfare reform, by expanding or improving data collection activities. Grants to states are being used, for example, to add additional survey waves to measure longer-term outcomes, collect data to support greater sub-group analyses, and gather more detailed information on non-respondents. To be eligible, states had to have an existing survey that had been administered at least once, so the grants can facilitate real improvements, without paying for basic startup costs. Survey efforts needed to fill an important knowledge gap that could not be filled with states' existing data. The data cover a variety of welfare reform outcomes, such as measures of family hardship and well-being, barriers to employment, poverty status, and utilization of support programs. The surveys focus on various subsets of the low-income population including long-term welfare recipients, child-only cases, former recipients, potential recipients, welfare leavers with little or no reported income, and other special populations affected by state TANF policies. The funded proposals include:
Alameda County, CA (2000)
Alameda County builds on its existing survey of current TANF recipients and TANF leavers who were interviewed at baseline and at 15 months. Under this project, researchers are conducting a 27- month follow-up survey and maintain the same detailed focus on health barriers to employment, including issues related to mental health and substance abuse. Researchers from the Public Health Institute are conducting in-person interviews and linking responses to the state's administrative data systems to gain information on demographics, earnings and program participation. The data gathering has been completed and analysis of the data are underway.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Missouri (2000)
Missouri is building on its ASPE-funded study of former TANF recipients who left the rolls in 1996 and 1997, and is adding a cohort of recipients who have remained on TANF for at least 36 months. The study seeks to characterize and contrast the self-sufficiency outcomes and barriers for current and former TANF recipients, and to identify which factors are most predictive of successfully transitioning off welfare, as well as those characteristics most predictive of exhausting the time limit. Survey data is linked with administrative data on TANF, food stamps, child care, Medicaid, and some community-based assistance. Thus far, the contractor for the study, the Midwest Research Institute, has selected the sample of long-term recipients and has fielded the questionnaire on barriers to work. Data analysis is ongoing.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
San Mateo County, CA (2000)
This study uses both administrative and survey data to study child-only cases, including cases that have left TANF and those that remain on the rolls. The study seeks to better understand the characteristics and outcomes of these families, many of whom are headed by immigrant parents. The study takes place in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and is being conducted by the SPHERE Institute. Their study also draws on administrative data from county case files, wage records and Medicaid eligibility data. Thus far, researchers have developed their research design, coordinated with various county offices, fielded the survey instrument, and constructed the administrative data files. Data analysis is ongoing.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Wisconsin (2000)
This project adds a third wave of interviews to the Institute for Research on Poverty's existing study of a cohort of TANF applicants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The findings from this wave will reflect outcomes for this cohort approximately two years after the baseline data were collected. The study is based on a sample of applicants, and the survey will contain results for those who have entered and subsequently left TANF, those still receiving TANF, and some who never received TANF. Adding a third wave to the applicant survey will support analysis of a significant number of cases who have reached the time limit in Wisconsin, and a significant number of cases who have cycled off and on the rolls. The researchers will examine a large number of outcomes related to employment, well-being and program participation. They anticipate that of the 1200 respondents from Wave 1, approximately 900 will complete interviews for Wave 3. The Wave 3 survey is currently in the field, and a descriptive report should be available in late fall.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
South Carolina Welfare Outcomes Grant (1998, 2000 and 2001)
This project continued ASPE's support of a multi-year effort by South Carolina's Office of Budget and Control Board's Office of Research and Statistics to link administrative data and additional data from surveys of former welfare recipients. The funds provided through an ACF cooperative agreement allowed South Carolina to continue its contract for the expansion of the follow-up studies. Final reports on the first year follow-up on welfare leavers have been released (3), as well as first- and second-year reports focusing on those families diverted from cash assistance. A final 36-month follow-up report, summarizing previous reports on both leavers and divertees, is expected in the fall.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
This project funds six states - California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Missouri, and South Carolina - to study the characteristics of their TANF caseloads. Particular attention will be given to the personal, family and community factors that may present barriers to employment. States will survey a sample of the current caseload by telephone, in order to gather information in such areas as physical and mental health, disability, substance abuse, and domestic violence, as well as information on demographics, work experience and income. To improve the comparability of survey data, states will use a standardized survey instrument (see project description below). Each state will supplement this common instrument with additional survey questions according to their particular interests, and will augment their survey data with administrative data in order to examine changes over time in recipient characteristics and program utilization. States will compare characteristics of recipients and barriers to employment across various subgroups, such as short-term and long-term recipients or employed and non-employed recipients.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2003
ASPE continued to support researcher-initiated proposals to study important questions related to the outcomes of welfare reform in FY 2001. Background on the FY 1999 and 2000 grant programs is included in Chapter II. In FY 2001, ASPE awarded eleven grants in support of policy-relevant research to broaden our understanding of welfare reform outcomes. Nine ASPE grantees received approximately $1.2 million; the Administration for Children and Families funded two grants totaling over $200,000. The issues being addressed under the 2001 grants include barriers to service delivery, particularly for special populations; family formation; child and youth outcomes; maternal employment; the low-wage labor market; family economic security; measurement of welfare utilization; and effects of TANF time limits. On-going projects are described below. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC): An Analysis of Caseload Composition and the Non-Working Welfare Leavers (2000)
Researchers are examining three groups of low-income populations (those who leave welfare for work, those who remain on the welfare rolls, and non-working welfare leavers) to address the following questions: (1) In what ways are the families who remain on welfare different than the ones who have left? (2) What are the characteristics and circumstances of people who leave welfare and are not working? The project uses data from seven evaluation studies of welfare programs (six used random assignment) conducted by MDRC.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Urban Institute: The Link Between Marriage and Low-Income Family Well-Being (2000) (formerly How Important is Marriage to Low-Income Family Well-Being?)
This project, which began in September 2000, is examining the interactions between family formation status and economic well-being to better understand the extent to which marriage is a protective factor against economic hardship, particularly among the disadvantaged population. The study examines various types of family formation, including single, married and cohabiting parents, and it looks at measures of poverty as well as material hardship. The project is producing four reports, based on various data sources. The first report has been completed (see Chapter II).
The second report is based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and explored in more depth the degree to which the protective role of marriage differs for more and less disadvantaged populations. Preliminary findings indicate that even among disadvantaged groups, marriage continues to significantly reduce the likelihood of being in poverty, although by some measures the effects were somewhat smaller among the disadvantaged population. The report, Married and Unmarried Parenthood and the Economic Well-Being of Families: A Dynamic Analysis of a Recent Cohort, is expected to be completed by Summer 2002.
The third report is based on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and focused more on measures of material hardship, including lack of phone service, housing inadequacy, food insecurity and utility shut-offs. Preliminary results indicate that, even after controlling for differences in income, married families tended to experience less material hardship than either cohabiting or single-parent families, and that this may be in part because married families have greater access to help from families, friends and communities. The report, The Relationship Between Marriage and Other Family Structures and the Material Hardship Experienced by Households with Children: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, is expected to be completed by Summer 2002.
The final report will be a literature review of various studies that analyze the returns to marriage, particularly for disadvantaged families.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Columbia University: Fragile Families and Welfare Reform (joint with ACF) (2000)
This study will describe the conditions and capabilities of vulnerable mothers and fathers in the first few years following enactment of PRWORA and begin an evaluation of the impact of TANF and child support policies. Specifically, researchers will document the composition of the actual and eligible welfare caseload, how unwed mothers are packaging various forms of support and government programs, and how well families are doing as a result of individual efforts and social policies. Researchers also will conduct subgroup analyses on teenage parents and immigrants. The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a random sample of new unmarried mothers and fathers in 20 large cities across the United States, will be utilized. The first report under this grant, a baseline report that provides demographic and descriptive statistics as well as a comparison of mothers who are receiving public assistance to those who are not, is currently under review and is expected to be released in Summer 2002. Upcoming reports will use 12-month follow-up data to analyze length of assistance receipt, use of public and private supports, employment, changes in circumstances, and city and policy variations.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2003
UCLA/RAND: A Proposal to Examine the Reporting of Welfare Benefits in the SIPP Using Matched Administrative Records in California (joint with ACF) (2000)
This two-year study examines the accuracy of self-reports of program participation in survey data. In particular, researchers are comparing self-reported program participation among Californians interviewed in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) with California administrative files of program participation for the same individuals. Researchers will document the degree of misreporting in a variety of programs, including AFDC/TANF, Medicaid, and food stamps, and investigate the implications of misreporting for conclusions about the dynamics of welfare participation.
Estimated Completion Date: September 2002
UCLA/University of Wisconsin: The Effects of the Work Pays Demonstration, EITC Expansions and the Business Cycle on the Labor Market Behavior of the California Caseload (2000)
This project will examine the effect of: 1) welfare changes, 2) the 1990 and 1993 expansions of the EITC, and 3) changes in the business cycle on three specific issues concerning the California welfare population. These issues include: 1) how do these factors contribute to the economic well-being of families; 2) how do they affect labor market and transfer program participation; and 3) how do they affect employment changes and earnings trajectories? The project will use California administrative data drawn from the welfare, unemployment insurance, and tax systems. This project has experienced delays in negotiating and securing the necessary data sharing agreements with the various agencies.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
University of Wisconsin: Toward Understanding the Longitudinal Health Insurance and Food Stamp Status of Short- and Long-Term Welfare "Leavers" (1999)
Subsidized medical insurance and food purchases through the Medicaid and Food Stamp programs potentially improve the health and economic well-being of low-income people, but only if eligible participants receive program benefits. Reports of low take-up rates and decreases in food stamp and Medicaid participation rates following passage of welfare reform legislation in 1996 raised concerns about the health care coverage and nutritional status of low-income people, particularly former recipients of cash welfare. This project explores the long-term utilization of food stamp and Medicaid benefits for two cohorts of welfare recipients who left cash assistance in Wisconsin. The first cohort consists of those who left cash welfare in 1995 (under welfare reform waivers); the second cohort consists of those who left welfare two years later, in 1997. The paper estimates both initial take-up rates (i.e., participation rates among those eligible immediately after exit from cash welfare) and participation rates for extended periods after leaving assistance. Preliminary findings show that participation eroded over time after exiting cash welfare in similar patterns for the two cohorts, but the overall level of take-up was substantially higher for the latter (1997) cohort of leavers.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Child Trends: Maternal Employment and Adolescent Functioning During the Early Implementation of PRWORA: The Role of Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Adolescent Employment (2001)
This project will examine how the lives of adolescents in single-mother, low-income families who have received welfare during the early stages of PRWORA implementation are affected by their mothers' employment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, the project will investigate how maternal employment in these families relates to key aspects of adolescents' lives, including their autonomy, their relationships with their parents, and their own employment. This project will examine how these changes in adolescents' lives relate to their well-being. It also will investigate how relationships among these variables differ for various subgroups of adolescents, as well as whether they are indicative of a process occurring in single-mother, low-income families more generally, or are specific to families receiving welfare.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
Johns Hopkins University: A Study of TANF Non-Entrants (2001)
This project will use data from the Three-City Study, a study of low-income families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio. It will examine the employment rates, earnings, income, and other measures of well-being for families who have not applied for welfare or who have applied and been rejected or diverted. Specific questions from the Three-City Study survey regarding experiences with application and diversion will be used to document how common these events are. Longitudinal analyses will be conducted using two waves of survey data, examining how families fare after having been diverted or not having applied. The survey data will be supplemented by ethnographic, participant-observation data on families who have not entered TANF or who have applied and been rejected or diverted.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
New Jersey Department of Human Services: Are Former Welfare Recipients Likely to be Eligible for UI? Evidence from New Jersey (2001)
This project will examine the extent to which former welfare recipients who leave welfare for work are likely to be eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI). Pre-welfare reform data has indicated that many prior welfare recipients who leave work are ineligible for UI. Using a set of administrative and survey data from the ongoing Work First New Jersey (WFNJ) evaluation, this study will focus on three main questions, in a post-welfare reform sample: 1) How many former welfare recipients who leave welfare for work are likely to be eligible for UI? 2) What are the actual UI experiences of welfare recipients who lose their jobs? and 3) What is the total extent of the safety net of these individuals, including welfare and UI amounts and durations?
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
The SPHERE Institute: Implications for the Design of Federal Time Limit Rules: Who Will Hit TANF Time Limits in California? (2001)
This study is designed to: 1) estimate the number and proportion of California TANF cases likely to hit five-year federal time limits; 2) determine how families likely to hit the time limit differ from other TANF families; 3) estimate the number of working families likely to hit time limits; 4) determine how working families likely to hit time limits differ from working families that leave TANF, with a particular focus on differences in employment characteristics; and 5) consider the implications of these findings for the design of federal time limit rules, focusing on assessment of the current 20 percent hardship exemption and alternatives that account for employment behavior. Linked California statewide administrative data sources measuring TANF participation, recipient demographics and earnings, and employer characteristics will be used.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
University of Texas, Austin: Changes in Employment, Welfare Receipt, and Income as Predictors of Family and Child Care Contexts and Youth Risk and Resilient Behavior (2001)
This study will use longitudinal data from the New Hope evaluation (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), a work-based, anti-poverty program, to investigate the relations of parents' employment, income, and welfare receipt to family organization, children's activities, and development of children and youth during the course of welfare reform in the late 1990's. The questions to be examined are: 1) Do the levels and changes in parents' employment, family income, and receipt of welfare for the period from 1995-2001 predict family organization, children's participation in child care and out-of school activities, and youth risk and resilient behavior? 2) Are effects of employment, income, and welfare on children and youth mediated by changes in family organization or child activities? 3) Are these relations different for children in middle childhood versus adolescents?
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
University of Washington: State Policy Variation and the Economic Security of Low-Income Families in the Wake of Welfare Reform (2001)
The three principal investigators have developed a database of state policy indicators for 11 program areas, in each of six years. Programs in the database capture the components of a package of supportive assistance available to low-income families with children, including some transfer, tax, in-kind, and work support policies. The study will address two questions: 1) How did the packages of "family support policies" provided by states change between 1994 and 1999/2000? and 2) What were the consequences for the economic well-being of families with children? For this study, time series data will be used to describe state policy developments from 1994 to 1999/2000, and innovative analytic techniques will make it possible to estimate the effects of state-level policies on families' resources, resource packages, and experience of hardship.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
The Urban Institute: The Interactions of Workers and Firms In the Low-Wage Labor Market: Implications for Welfare Reform (2001)
This study will examine the determinants of successful employment and wage outcomes among low-income workers. Using longitudinal administrative data on workers and the firms that employ them, researchers will address the following questions: 1) For those low-income workers who ultimately succeed by gaining higher earnings, to what extent are they generated by returns to job retention as opposed to mobility across firms? 2) Do these pathways to higher earnings differ by age, gender, race/ethnicity, geographic location, and time period for the disadvantaged workers in question? and 3) What characteristics of employers contribute the most to these successful outcomes? Are there particular matches between worker and firm characteristics that are most helpful for achieving worker success? Are there particular transition patterns across employers that are most likely to generate such success? Researchers will use the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data set, which includes an employer-worker data set based on state-level unemployment insurance data.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
Washington University: Children with Disabilities: Implications for the Transition from Welfare to Work (2001)
This project will examine aspects of the economic and psycho-social impacts a child with disabilities has on low-income and welfare-recipient, single-mother families. The project will document the incidence of child disability among low-income and welfare-recipient, single-mother families and examine the characteristics of families with disabled children. The impact that children with disabilities have on their families' ability to exit welfare and poverty, as well as the impact on adult labor supply in these families over time, will be examined.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
Wilder Research Center: Barriers, Service Delivery Issues, and Outcomes for Somali, Hmong, and American Indian Participants in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (2001)
This study will examine culturally specific characteristics and service delivery issues that affect employment and welfare use among Somali and Hmong immigrants and American Indians in Minnesota, groups with the lowest welfare exit rates. Researchers plan to collect in-depth, qualitative information directly from members of the cultural groups. A better understanding of culturally related variations in characteristics, needs, and experiences will facilitate planning for more effective services and policies at a time when members of these three groups constitute a disproportionate share of those who are likely to exhaust their 60-month TANF limits.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2003
[Go To Contents]
The New Immigrant Survey is a large, longitudinal survey of recently arriving immigrants beginning in 2000. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD of the National Institutes of Health) are the principal funders of the survey. ASPE has contributed to this effort and also has provided input to the planning of the study and the development of the pilot instruments. ASPE's contribution helps ensure that comprehensive and relevant data are collected and analyzed about program utilization and hardship and well-being over time among newly arriving low-income immigrant families in different states. In particular, ASPE's continued support will ensure that the study focuses on what is happening to children in these families under welfare reform.
Estimated Completion Date: 2005
The devolution of welfare to the states and increased flexibility poses substantial new challenges for data collection and analysis to monitor welfare outcomes. To meet these challenges new and better data are needed at the state and local level. This project supports the administration of a welfare participation question in the state level telephone survey - State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS) - sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and carried out by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The participation question has been cognitively tested and is the same as that asked on other national surveys (e.g., Current Population Survey, National Survey of Drug Abuse). This data element when combined with other data available from this survey will permit the development of state level estimates of the incidence of special health care needs among children of current and former welfare recipients, as well as the health insurance status (including Medicaid and SCHIP) of current and former recipients. The fielding of the survey is complete, and data are being readied for analysis. Following the initial analysis of the data, a public-release database will be released for analysis.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
This project, funded jointly by ACF and ASPE, supports the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism database and website. The website is designed to provide the most reliable information to key stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, administrators, and practitioners concerning welfare reform interventions being tested; populations and geographic areas being assessed; research methods being used; major findings already available; and when future findings will be released. The data base and web site provide valuable information useful to Federal officials and other practitioners regarding research and demonstration initiatives related to welfare reform and the well-being of low-income children and families.
Estimated Completion Date: On-going activity
This project continues ASPE's support of a study to determine the prevalence of job-holding associated with a living wage in the post-1996 period for adults who received AFDC benefits in calendar year 1996. The sample of 1996 adult recipients will be drawn from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the Annual Demographic Supplement (ADS) to the March 1997 Current Population Survey and the 1997 base-line interview sample of the Survey of Program Dynamics. Post-1996 earnings activity will be documented using earnings records obtained from the Social Security Administration (SSA) administrative records matched to the samples for each of these surveys. Initial tracking of job holding and earnings levels via administrative records will be restricted to calendar years 1996, 1997 and possibly 1998. Job holding of female family heads with dependent children who were not receiving means-tested benefits also will be tracked to provide a broader context for interpreting the observed patterns among adult AFDC recipients. Employment and earnings outcomes will be differentiated both by baseline characteristics and earnings patterns established on the basis of the pre-1996 year-by-year lifetime earnings histories stemming from the SSA administrative records files. This project has been delayed because of difficulties in securing the necessary inter-agency data sharing agreements. All agreements are now in place, the data has been merged and the analysis phase is in progress. We expect to receive an initial report on welfare and former welfare recipients in Fall 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: December 2002
With other federal and private funders, ASPE and ACF are working with states to improve measurement of child health and well-being outcomes in state welfare evaluations. Five states are using a common protocol to add child outcome measures to their welfare reform evaluations. Continuation funding is enabling states and their evaluators to receive research technical assistance on collecting survey data using the common core of instruments, using administrative data sources, and developing and coordinating data analysis and reporting strategies. The focus of the current phase of work is the production of a synthesis of the findings from the five state evaluations. The research technical assistance is provided by the NICHD Research Network on Family and Child Well-Being under Child Trends' Leadership.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
This task order is for the development of a standardized telephone survey instrument to be used in ASPE's State Studies on TANF Caseload project (described above) and for technical assistance throughout this project. Under this task order, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., has developed a survey instrument following review of existing instruments, such as the Women's Employment Survey (WES), the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD), the Mathematica Policy Research Caseload Survey, and TANF "leavers" surveys from Missouri and Alameda County, CA. The survey instrument consists of a common set of questions to be administered by states participating in the above project, supplemented by additional questions according to each state's particular interests. Mathematica also will be responsible for gaining approval of the survey instrument from the Office of Management and Budget, and for providing a variety of technical assistance to participating states.
Estimated Completion Date: Winter 2003
This task order is to assist ASPE in utilizing survey data on the TANF caseload in Illinois. The data were acquired by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., in a project funded by the Packard and Casey Foundations. The data will include information on the personal characteristics and situations, potential barriers to employment, compensating strengths and resources, preparation for employment, and employment outcomes of current TANF recipients. Under the ASPE task order, Mathematica is analyzing this rich set of data, in order to explore the relationships of an array of factors to the employment outcomes of TANF recipients. In particular, the analysis will enhance ASPE's understanding of the extent to which "job readiness" or "human capital" - the skills, experiences, habits and attitudes that prepare individuals for employment - compensate for barriers to employment. Findings will inform TANF policy and administration, particularly regarding screening and assessment, job preparation strategies and the targeting of services. An interim report of preliminary findings is expected in July 2002, and a final report in January 2003.
Estimated Completion Date: Winter 2003
Over a dozen new HHS-sponsored administrative and survey databases have recently become available for researcher use. Secondary analyses of new databases will increase our understanding of the outcomes of welfare reform. These databases include data from the ASPE supported National Evaluation of Welfare to Work Strategies (NEWWS), as well as state and local welfare leaver studies. In this project, HSP is working with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin to provide dissertation and post-dissertation grants to young scholars to explore aspects of welfare reform using the HHS-sponsored data sets. The grants also will build capacity by encouraging younger scholars to undertake welfare-related research. Three grants were awarded in December 2001; additional grants are expected to be awarded in June 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: Reports from the first grants are expected in early 2003; reports from the second round of grants are expected in late 2003.
Although a number of national and state surveys have begun gathering measures of material hardship (e.g., utility cutoffs, inability to get needed medical attention, food insecurity, evictions), it is hard to respond to Congressional interest in gathering information on a state-by-state basis, given the small sample size of most national surveys and the lack of comparability across state surveys. The purpose of this project is to advance understanding of the value and limitations of measures of material hardship as a component of family well-being. The initial phase of this project has been completed, including the convening in February 2002 of a one-day roundtable on measuring material hardship. Over the coming months, the contractor, Abt Associates, will produce a final report summarizing the one-day meeting.
Estimated Completion Date: December 2002
This project continued ASPE's on-going core support for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). ASPE funds provide partial support for the continued collection and processing of longitudinal data relevant to research on economic factors and income support mechanisms, health, fertility, medical care, and disability affecting the poor and the elderly. In particular, ASPE funds continued to support an expansion of the set of welfare related questions to assess the entry effects of recent reforms. In addition, these funds supported an expanded sample of low-income families with children for core data collection activities related to the Child Supplement, which collects a host of information on the well-being of children. Data collected as part of this effort will be made publicly available for analysis by the grantee. Core support for the PSID comes from the National Science Foundation ($2 million), the National Institute on Aging, and the Departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, along with other funders.
Estimated Completion Date: On-going activity
Working with the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and Child Trends, ASPE is preparing a technical assistance conference for states that are interested in developing and monitoring indicators of youth health and well-being as changes occur in welfare and other key policies. The contractors have created inventories of national and state efforts to improve youth measures, and are working with states to design and conduct a meeting on youth indicators, develop dissemination materials, and identify the best opportunities for HHS to assist states in the future. The meeting was held in Spring 2002, and materials are being/will be disseminated during major meetings, such as the National Youth Summit in June 2002, and the annual meeting of the National Association of Welfare Research and Statistics scheduled for August 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
[Go To Contents]
This project is studying the events associated with people entering and exiting poverty. The project will document the likelihood of entering and exiting poverty for various groups, as well as the extent to which various transition events or combinations of events account for entries and exits from poverty. This project also will examine whether poverty rates are declining because fewer people are entering poverty or because more people are exiting poverty. The product will be a report based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) that analyzes the events that increase individuals' likelihood of entering and exiting poverty, and the dynamics behind changes in the poverty rate over time.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
The TANF program must be reauthorized before the end of Fiscal Year 2002, as must the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the Food Stamp Program, and several other programs. We anticipated that, as in the period before enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), ASPE would be called upon to contribute to the reauthorization discussions by providing analyses of policy issues and options, especially those affecting low-income children and families. Under this project, ASPE awarded a task order contract to the Urban Institute to have the Institute perform very quick analyses of existing data sets, such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), data from the Urban Institute's National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), administrative data on the TANF program, state policy data, and others. Data analyses could provide information about the characteristics of children and families across a wide range of policy relevant topics, including transitions to employment, child and family well-being, child poverty, interactions with food stamps, Medicaid/SCHIP and SSI, the impact of state policy changes made as a result of the flexibility of the TANF law, or other questions identified during the reauthorization process. Each question would be expected to result in a deliverable of a memorandum with detailed tables.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
With the implementation of welfare reform, state and local agencies have established a variety of rules and procedures governing enrollment in TANF and Medicaid. As authority for welfare policy has devolved to state and, oftentimes, local levels, local agencies and caseworkers may have more discretion over how individual cases are handled. This study is examining the implications for special populations, particularly individuals of different backgrounds and limited English language abilities. The results of this project will provide additional information about the effects of program policy and implementation at different levels on program utilization by these special populations. The project consists of detailed case studies that examine agency policies and practices, as well as caseworker training and discretion, in six metropolitan areas, which are in the process of being identified.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
PRWORA describes several outcomes of concern related to teen pregnancy, including an increased likelihood of dependence on public assistance, and reducing teen pregnancy is viewed as an important aspect of promoting self-sufficiency and family well-being within the context of welfare reform. Yet, as teen birth rates have fallen at an unprecedented rate since 1991, there is a debate regarding factors that have contributed to this decline. This project will use data from the National Survey of Family Growth to describe data on sexual activity, partner characteristics, and contraceptive use for women surveyed in 1995 who were teens at any time during the study period. This data will be used to create simulation models that may clarify which factors are associated with changes in teen pregnancy and births and how possible future changes in these factors might affect teen pregnancy and birth rates. Using monthly event history data, the study will observe trends in behavior between 1991 and 1995. Trend information will be presented for multiple population subgroups, including by race/ethnicity, age, and parity (whether or not they had a prior teen birth). Estimates based on event history data are being created. Work is beginning on setting up a base model to assess factors associated with a continued decline in the teen birth rate.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
A majority of incarcerated men and women are parents, and the impact of incarceration appears to be greatest in poor, minority, urban communities. The toll on children, families, and communities of this incarceration and return of inmates has begun to be recognized, together with the growing realization that families served by TANF and other Department of Health and Human Services programs are families who also are more likely to experience the effects of incarceration. The prison to home project commissioned 11 papers which were presented at a policy conference in January 2002. About 300 representatives from the criminal justice, health, and human services fields attended, including federal officials, state officials, program operators and researchers. Among the important preliminary findings was that the highest concentration of populations on TANF are living in neighborhoods where incarceration rates also are the highest. This is particularly true in neighborhoods with large numbers of children (in one such community, 54 percent of the children were receiving public assistance). The papers from the conference will be posted on the ASPE website when available. A final report on the project is expected in Summer 2002.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
As part of ASPE's work examining how families and children are affected by the high rates of incarceration in some low-income communities, a symposium was held in November 2001, bringing together the collaborating agency heads and other key stakeholders from selected sites. This symposium provided essential information about the issues for and choices made by states as they implement cross-cutting strategies that involve criminal justice, welfare and health systems. Many of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families are current or former welfare recipients. Key areas explored at the symposium included resource needs, identification of barriers, partnership building, and implementation lessons. National organizations, such as the National Governors Association and National Conference of State Legislatures, and other federal and private sector representatives also attended the symposium. Information from the symposium was used to plan and implement the January 2002 ASPE policy conference "From Prison to Home," and will be incorporated into the final report on that conference (see above).
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
The purpose of this project, co-sponsored by ASPE and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is to identify and provide information about promising federal, state and community-based strategies which are believed to be useful in promoting the overall well-being of infants and toddlers and their families. The focus is on poor families and post-PRWORA changes in policies and programs. The highlighted strategies have been grouped into the four core areas of family life on which the project is focused - economic security, basic supports, nurturing relationships, and special supports for vulnerable children and families. Many strategies touch on more than one core area. Representatives of the strategies met in a workshop in March 2002 with government staff at various levels to share information. The resulting product will be a sourcebook of profiles of programs/initiatives targeted toward poor infants and toddlers and their families. Information about the profiled strategies will be presented in a user-friendly way in order to be valuable to a broad audience. The sourcebook will be made available through ASPE's website.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
The 1999 funded project, Trends in the Demand for Assistance Services, jointly funded with the Office of Program Systems (PS) within ASPE, examined the trends in the demand for emergency assistance services, such as homeless shelters and food banks, from the mid-1990's to 2000. One study, Welfare Reform and Emergency Service Use in Communities with Rapidly Declining Caseloads, was conducted by the SPHERE Institute in San Mateo County, California. The second study, Trends in Demand for Emergency Services in Massachusetts Post Welfare Reform, 1995-2000, was conducted by the University of Massachusetts and focused on the entire state. The studies found both parallels and differences in the patterns of emergency assistance. Among the parallels were a substantial decline in the welfare rolls, substantial increases in the cost of affordable housing, increased use of emergency rental assistance by poor families, and increases in the use of shared living space among families that used emergency food assistance.
Differences in findings between the two grants also were noted. In the California study, welfare reform did not appear to be associated with significant increases in the number of residents relying on food assistance or emergency shelter. Food assistance appeared to show declines during the study period, particularly among homeless recipients. Between 1994 and 1998, the overall number of homeless persons was unchanged, but the single homeless adults increased while homeless children decreased.
In the Massachusetts study, while more parents were working, the researchers believe that poor families were poorer (earnings increases did not offset drops in TANF and food stamp benefits). The researchers found increased use of emergency shelter and food assistance programs by poor families during the study period. The researchers noted housing affordability problems - defined as the loss of affordable housing stock, a tripling in the turn-back of Section 8 vouchers, and rent increases - as significant contributors to the increased demands for emergency assistance.
To add more locations to this analysis, the Office of Program Systems funded an Intra-Agency Agreement with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) during FY 2000. SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services added funding to the Agreement. SAMHSA awarded a contract to the Gallup Organization that added Spokane, Washington and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to the analysis. The sites used time frames and emergency assistance programs that were consistent with the above grants. The contract was being jointly monitored by ASPE and SAMHSA. The Gallup Organization has submitted a draft final report that is undergoing program review. A Summer 2002 release of the findings from the four sites is anticipated.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
This project is a supplement to an ongoing four-year study of the implications of welfare reform for low-income families living in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio (a summary of the study is available at <http://www.jhu.edu/~welfare>). The broader study is being undertaken by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Pennsylvania State University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and the University of Texas-Austin. Funds are being used to explore how welfare reform is affecting the lives of a particularly vulnerable subset of the welfare population - adults and children with disabilities. This will be accomplished by conducting longitudinal case studies of families with members with disabilities receiving TANF and through a broader survey effort. The purpose of the data collection efforts is to better understand how recent work participation requirements and time limits under welfare reform are affecting service utilization, family member's health and development, support networks, parenting, and child care arrangements.
ASPE and the Administration for Children and Families are the primary funders of the disability component of the study. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is the primary funder of the broader study, along with several private foundations. Andrew Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University, is the principal investigator. The first round of interviews for the main survey were conducted from March 1999 until December 1999. Fieldwork in the ethnography component began in fall 1999 and is ongoing. Results from the project will be available over the course of the study. Listed below are the current publications from the broader study; results from the ethnographies focused on disability will be available later.
Accomplishments to date:
Estimated Completion Date: 2003
In late 2001, the first families reached the 60-month federal time limit on receipt of TANF benefits. ASPE and ACF jointly funded the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) to study the early experiences of states in implementing both the federal time limit and shorter state time limits, in order to be able to answer questions about these policies that come up as part of the debate regarding TANF reauthorization. Based on a survey of state TANF administrators, the report will examine the policies that states have adopted regarding time limits, exemptions, and extensions; the number of cases that have reached state or federal time limits; and whether they have been terminated as a result. The report will then draw upon site visits to examine the implementation of time limits in greater detail. Finally, the report will summarize the existing literature on the effects of time limits on welfare receipt, employment, income and other measures of adult and child well-being, and on the outcomes for families terminated from welfare due to time limits.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
While some experimental studies of welfare to work programs have measured outcomes for children, broader discussions of welfare reform are rarely framed around issues for children. Under this project, Mathematica Policy Research (and subcontractor Child Trends) will summarize the current body of research on welfare programs and children (either all children or a salient subgroup) and identify paths for future research. Topics under consideration include: characteristics of children in welfare-dependent families, family structure, child care, and child welfare.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
Welfare reform's effects on family formation and composition as well as how such changes can affect the financial resources and material well-being of members of low-income households are issues of strong interest to policy makers. Through a literature review, The Urban Institute is documenting what is currently known about the effects of welfare policies on family formation and resource sharing. This synthesis will provide an overview of existing research across disciplines (e.g., anthropology, sociology and economics). The study also will summarize key data sources on this issue (e.g., SIPP, CPS, NLSY, SPD, National Survey of America's Families, National Survey of Family Growth) and their strengths and weaknesses for investigating family composition and household resource and well-being issues.
Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2002
Recently released findings based upon a small sample from the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation's (MDRC) evaluation of the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) suggest that the program had significant positive impacts on the marital stability of two-parent families. ASPE is funding a follow-up study of all two-parent recipient families in the sample to determine if the robustness of the original findings can be replicated in the larger sample. This work is a necessary first step before a decision is made about conducting a longer-term follow-up analysis of well-being outcomes for these families. If the original findings hold up for the larger sample, the balance of the task order funds will be used to develop (but not field) survey instruments for measuring well-being for the full sample.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
The reduction of nonmarital births is an important focus of TANF. This is highlighted in the goals of TANF and several provisions including the Bonus to Reward Reduction in Illegitimacy Ratio. This project examines recent state experiences in their efforts to reduce nonmarital births, including the role the Bonus has played in those efforts. This project gathers information from a sample of states to learn more about what efforts states have pursued in reducing nonmarital births and the challenges they have faced. The information has been gathered through panel discussions with stakeholders in a sample of states and from existing surveys of state efforts.
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2002
[Go To Contents]
This five-year project (which is primarily foundation-funded) is a multi-disciplinary study by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) of the implementation and impacts of welfare reform and welfare-to-work programs on low-income individuals, families and communities in four large urban areas - Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami. The project brings together data from an unusually wide array of sources - longitudinal administrative data for all families receiving AFDC/TANF or food stamps dating back to 1992, survey data, an implementation study, neighborhood indicators, an institutional study focusing on local service providers, and an ethnographic study of a limited number of families. In addition to ASPE, federal funding partners include ACF and the Economic Research Service at USDA. The federal contribution to this project leverages a substantial investment by foundations, which are funding the majority of the over $20 million project cost.
Accomplishments to date:
Is Work Enough? The Experiences of Current and Former Welfare Mothers Who Work, November 2001.
This report examined the work experiences of current and former welfare recipients in four urban areas, comparing those with the most stable recent employment histories to those with less stable employment. The researchers found high levels of full-time work and employment stability among these women, but even the women with high employment stability still worked in low-wage jobs and experienced multiple material hardships.
Readying Welfare Recipients for Work: Lessons from Four Big Cities as They Implement Welfare Reform, March 2002.
This report described how the welfare-to-work services provided to clients have changed in four urban areas since TANF, examining services and activities, the role of case management, participation rates, and spending patterns. The paper also looks at the effects of the funding provided under the formula grant component of the Welfare to Work Grants.
(These and other Urban Change reports are available at <http://www.mdrc.org/>)
Estimated Completion Date: September 2003
In FY 1998 we began funding, in partnership with ACF, a three year grant to support the evaluation of a New Jersey initiative which aims to improve employment and family outcomes for TANF recipients with substance abuse problems through substance abuse treatment, intensive case management and supportive services. This evaluation is providing important information about the effectiveness of a type of intervention several states are experimenting with to move substance abusing welfare clients toward self-sufficiency. The intervention New Jersey is implementing includes screening of welfare recipients for substance abuse problems, treatment referral mechanisms with enhanced case management, and substance abuse treatment coordinated with employment and training or vocational services. The evaluation, using a random assignment model, compares two models for providing such services, looking at outcomes in several domains including employment and family self-sufficiency, substance use and associated behaviors, child development and family functioning, and child welfare involvement. The intervention being evaluated is intended to improve the post-welfare prospects of TANF recipients with substance abuse problems. The evaluation is being conducted in two New Jersey counties (Essex and Atlantic). ASPE and ACF have provided support for this project. Other aspects of the evaluation are being funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Department's National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Estimated Completion Date: Random assignment of clients to the intervention models began in mid-1999. Research Notes on the effectiveness of two approaches to screening and assessment of substance abuse in welfare settings, and on the initial rates of treatment engagement and retention for program participants versus the control group were published in January 2001. A report entitled Barriers to Employability Among Women on TANF with a Substance Abuse Problem has been completed. Reports on project implementation and outcomes will be published later in 2002.
The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS) is a longitudinal
study by RAND of children, families and neighborhoods in Los Angeles County,
funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, with ASPE and Los
Angeles County providing supplemental funding for the first wave of data
collection. L.A. FANS includes a representative sample of 65 neighborhoods
(census tracts) throughout Los Angeles County, with an oversample of poor
neighborhoods. In each neighborhood, interviews are conducted with a total
of 40 to 50 randomly-chosen households; households with children (0 to 17)
are oversampled. Extensive information is collected on household socioeconomic
status, health care utilization, immigration, and other characteristics.
In addition, L.A. FANS collects a detailed two-year month-by-month calendar
of changes in employment, unemployment, health insurance coverage for adults
and children (by type and reason for changes), and program participation
(TANF, SSI, GA, food stamps). Information also is collected on the
characteristics and available health services in each sampled neighborhood.
Fieldwork for the first wave of the study was conducted between April 2000
and December 2001. Interviews were completed with adults and children in
a total of 3,171 households. Because of recent immigration trends and the
oversample of poor communities, the L.A. FANS wave 1 sample includes a
substantial number of first and second generation immigrants. Reflecting
the demography of Los Angeles, a majority of respondents are Latino. Interviews
were conducted in both English and Spanish by native speakers of each language.
Analysis of the wave 1 data will be carried out during the next year and
regular reports of findings will be released as available on RAND's website
at
<http://www.lasurvey.rand.org>.
Public use data files also will be released for other researchers' analyses
of welfare reform, health disparities, insurance coverage, and health care
utilization. In addition, RAND is working with the Los Angeles County Commission
on Children and Families, the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council,
and other organizations to insure that data and results are available to
local and state policymakers. RAND is currently seeking funding for a second
wave planned for 2004.
Estimated Completion Date: 2003
State and local agencies are making substantial investments through TANF and other sources to help low-income families with demonstrated difficulty entering and sustaining employment. There is a significant amount of activity and a variety of approaches being used to help low-income parents address or cope with the personal and family problems that interfere with their employment stability. ACF and ASPE are supporting a long-term, multi-site evaluation of programs working with hard-to-employ low-income parents in order to identify effective strategies for promoting employment and family well-being and to determine the effects of such programs on employment, earnings, income, welfare dependence, family functioning, and the well-being of children. The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation has been chosen as the contractor to design and conduct a multi-site evaluation that studies the implementation issues, net impact, and benefit-costs of selected programs. During the first year, the MDRC will assist HHS in identifying and recruiting programs with potential for evaluation and will assist selected programs in strengthening or expanding services to meet requisite conditions for rigorous evaluation.
Estimated Completion Date: 2009
This project helps support a National Governors Association (NGA) project to build state and local capacity to provide work supports which help low-income working parents sustain employment and advance in the labor market, as well as increase positive family functioning and child well-being. In October 2001, NGA convened a roundtable of federal and state policymakers, program administrators, and researchers with subject area expertise to develop clear goals for serving low-income working families. NGA has identified programs that are currently providing supports for low-income workers and their families, and is conducting site visits in order to identify lessons learned from their experiences. These lessons will be incorporated into a State Policymakers Guide to Developing a Policy Agenda for Low-Income Working Families, and NGA will convene one or more conferences for state and local officials. NGA also will provide customized technical assistance to three states that wish to develop these models further. ACF is the lead agency on this project, and USDA/ERS also is providing funding for this project.
Estimated Completion Date: February 2003
ASPE/HSP continues to manage an existing $6 million multi-year contract with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) to conduct a Congressionally mandated evaluation of selected programs under Title V, State Abstinence Education Program. This large and complex, rigorous evaluation is taking an empirical look at the differential effectiveness of several types of abstinence programs. It will measure the success of different program models in altering adolescent attitudes and intentions about premarital sex, reducing sexual activity among teens, convincing adolescents who have had sex to become abstinent, and lowering exposure to sexually transmitted diseases and nonmarital births. The 2001 ASPE funds will allow the evaluation to follow adolescents for longer periods of time and to coordinate with the newly mandated community-based abstinence education evaluation (see below). Highlights from the interim early implementation report to Congress are included in Chapter 2. A report on the success of programs in achieving their short term goals of changing knowledge, attitudes and near-term behavioral choices is expected in Winter 2003. The final impact findings will be available in 2005. Details and updated information about the evaluation can be found at Mathematica Policy Research's web site on abstinence-only education programs <http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/3rdlevel/abstinence.htm>.
Estimated Completion Date: 2005
In FY 2001, a new community based abstinence education grant program was created in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These community grants provide support to public and private entities for the development and implementation of abstinence education programs in communities. ASPE has been given responsibility for the Community Based Abstinence Education Program Evaluation activities. This separate but related project, to be conducted by Abt Associates, will explore the programmatic and evaluative information that currently exists in the area of abstinence-only education and related fields, and develop design options for evaluation activities. This work will be coordinated with the ongoing evaluation of the state formula grant program activities.
With the devolution of responsibility for welfare programs under TANF, many state and local governments have turned to non-profit, and increasingly for-profit, organizations to carry out human services functions that traditionally have been provided by the public sector. As a result, there has been an increase in the prevalence of performance-based contracts, as state and local governments attempt to maintain accountability while testing the effectiveness of these non-traditional service providers. Under this project, Mathematica Policy Research is undertaking case studies of six state and local human services agencies that have privatized services funded under the TANF block grant. The sites selected for participation in this study include: Delaware, Wisconsin, Hennepin County, MN, Palm Beach County, FL, San Diego County, CA, and Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX. Agency administrators and front-line workers are being interviewed to determine the types of services that have been privatized and the performance measures used by government entities in their relationships with private organizations. Site visits began in March 2002 and will take place throughout the spring and summer of this year. A final report will describe emerging positive trends and problem areas, in both the services delivered and the types of contracts used. In addition, a review of the literature in the area of privatization of welfare services has been completed, and will be posted on the ASPE web site at: <http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/>.
Estimated Completion Date: January 2003
1. In 1998 grants were awarded to ten states and three large counties or consortia of counties (Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin; and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Los Angeles County, California, and San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara Counties, California). Separate but comparable studies were also funded in Iowa (with FY 1999 funding) and South Carolina (in FY 1998 and 2000, as part of a longer-term project) resulting in a total of 15 studies. Three grantees - Arizona, Missouri, and a consortium of San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara counties - received additional funding in FY 1999 to extend the studies and administer a second or third wave of interviews, allowing analysis of longer-term outcomes for former recipients. Descriptions of the funded projects and links to available reports can be found at <http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/leavers99/index.htm#background>.
2. Diversion programs include formal efforts to address the immediate needs of families seeking cash assistance in ways that avoid enrolling these families in TANF. Examples of formal diversion programs include lump sum payment programs, mandatory applicant job search programs and the exploration of alternative means of support.
3. Although funded separately, findings from South Carolina's study of welfare leavers were incorporated with the Findings from ASPE-Funded Leavers Studies (Grants to States and Localities to Study Welfare Outcomes), which are summarized in Chapter II.
Main Page of Report | Contents of Report
Home Pages:
Human Services Policy (HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)