Face-to-face contact with children in foster care by caseworkers is a key element to maintaining child well-being. The Administration for Children and Families reviewed all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico between 2001 and 2004 to determine whether the frequency of caseworker visits was sufficient to meet the child's needs. This article reviews the written standards that some States have implemented for caseworker visits with children in foster care and the practices of States without written standards.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) and Emergency Assistance programs wit the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Under TANF, the nature of public assistance changed from an entitlement program to one that requires individuals to work in order to receive time-limited support. This change in the welfare delivery system was accompanied by an increase in State-level flexibility in program design and operation. Welfare reform required no less than a redefinition of the role of decision makers at the Federal, State and local level, including the role played by front line workers when interacting with welfare recipients. In the journey toward reinventing the social safety net, States have met a variety of formidable challenges. Five years after the passage of welfare reform, this report takes stock of the past and current challenges that States have encountered. This report focuses on the policies and services provided to the hardest-to-serve and on the network of collaborations that States have developed to address the needs of these populations.

The National Healthy Marriage Academy, held January 8 and 9, 2003,  in Arlington, VA, provided an opportunity for representatives from several States to learn more about the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Healthy Marriage Initiative. The Academy afforded States an opportunity to hear presentations from nationally recognized speakers, researchers, and Federal policy makers, as well as from other States with successful Healthy Marriage Initiatives.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop on behalf of the ACF Region IV office. The network is a contract from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA). The contractors for the network are AFYA, Inc. and Caliber Associates. The purpose of this two day technical assistance event was to identify the participating states’ transportation priority challenges, to examine other state’s initiatives that have addressed these challenges, to identify available resources, and to explore lessons learned that participants could use as a background for formulating next steps to address these challenges. Additional topics addressed included TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century), the role of Head Start, and the wealth of resources available via the National Transit Resource Center (operated by the Community Transportation Association of America).

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop in conjunction with the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Division. The purpose of this two-day workshop was to assemble a collection of varying levels of expertise from all over the nation among the Individual Development Account (IDA) field to promote information sharing and fact finding. This workshop built on the successes of two previous IDA workshops that were hosted by the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network during this past year. The program for this workshop was similar to the other two workshops with the additional component of focusing on the flexibility available in using Welfare to Work funds for IDA programs.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Forum event that took place in Jacksonville, FL on May 23-24, 2006. This Roundtable brought together stakeholders from around the state to help sustain Florida's Prosperity Campaign to improve economic self-sufficiency for low income working families.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, coordinated two-day site visits at the request of several Regional and State Department of Health and Human Services Offices. States were invited to participate based on findings resulting from the Network’s national needs assessment regarding the challenges and successes of implementation of State welfare reform initiatives. Ms. Vesta Kimble, Deputy Director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services, led the site visit. Ms. Kimble provided an in-depth description of Anne Arundel County’s Family Investment Program. This technical assistance event afforded participants an opportunity to observe Anne Arundel’s welfare service delivery system first hand.

On March 26-27, 2002, the Welfare Peer TA held a technical assistance meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in order to compare and contrast Louisiana’s joint interagency substance abuse initiative to that of the State of North Carolina. As part of this comparison, staff members from North Carolina’s Division of Social Services and its Division of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities/Substance Abuse Services were onsite to participate in the meeting. Their role in this technical assistance meeting was to provide information about their initiative and informal observations and recommendations to Louisiana about their interagency substance abuse initiative. The overall goal of the meeting was to examine what “works” and what “doesn’t work” from the perspective of the North Carolina staff. The meeting included a visit to a pilot site for the State’s substance abuse initiative, which afforded the North Carolina staff an opportunity to gain an in-depth observation and understanding of Louisiana’s program.

The Olmstead Decision and Welfare-to-Work ACF Region IV Meeting was held on August 23-24, 2000, at The Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 80 participants attended, including State Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) Directors, and Welfare-to-Work (WtW) administrators along with representatives from State Medicaid offices, and representatives of the Developmental Disabilities Network (State developmental disabilities councils, protection and advocacy agencies, and the university affiliated programs). The focus of this Regional meeting was to examine how the Olmstead Decision and Welfare-to-Work initiatives can be incorporated into each States’ Strategic Plan.

In response to a request for technical assistance from the Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County Social Services Department, Welfare Peer TA sponsored a Roundtable event in Nashville, TN April 26-27, 2005. Welfare Peer TA Roundtables are designed to bring together a group of professionals working in similar or complimentary disciplines in a workshop setting to foster peer-to-peer learning through interactive sessions. This Roundtable was attended by individuals representing federal, State and local agencies, and community-based organizations. The goal of this TA effort was to assist the community in developing collaboratives to improve the well-being of children and families in Davidson County, improve relationships with key strategic partners, improve family stability, improve services to struggling families and improve employment and self-sufficiency outcomes.