This issue brief, authored by the National Conference of State Legislatures, examines the needs surrounding older teens who experience unintended pregnancies. Community colleges see a high dropout rate for women who attend and then become pregnant, highlighting the fact that unplanned pregnancies often derail educational goals. An overview of Federal funding provided to States to prevent and address unplanned pregnancies is provided.

This article appears in an annual report compiled by the Center for Early Childhood Development at the University of Minnesota on coordinating systems for better child outcomes. It highlights a partnership that Ramsey County, Minnesota developed between their TANF program and their existing public health nurse home visiting program. The subsequent program model streamlines the TANF system for teen parents and provides for in-home and school- based services and supports for teen parents as they plan to attend higher education or enter the workforce after graduation or GED completion. The program boasts increased positive birth outcomes and high school/GED completion rates for teens involved in this program versus their uninvolved counterparts.

The Urban Institute recently published an article discussing the Work Support Strategies Initiative. Work Support Strategies (WSS) is a multiyear, multi-State initiative to implement reforms that help eligible low-income families get and keep a full package of work support benefits, including Medicaid, nutrition assistance (SNAP), and child care assistance. This report summarizes the lessons learned from the nine planning grant States (Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina), just one year into a four-year project. The report includes what the States did, how they overcame challenges, and how the planning year changed their strategies and capacities for the future.

The College, Career & Technology Academy Toolkit developed by Jobs for the Future, provides detailed instructions, tools, and other resources for practitioners seeking to prepare off-track, out-of-school youth for postsecondary success.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration has issued six new Quick-Lesson Podcasts to help individuals find and use workforce statistics on unemployment, worker dislocation, projections, industries, the economy, and states and localities. The podcasts presume no previous subject matter or statistical knowledge, making it accessible for a broad variety of audiences and purposes. Each presentation includes basic definitions, a brief historical background, links to the most important data sources, and practical tips on how to interpret and use the data.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report on young adult employment. This report indicates that young adults' employment varies by education. Highlights from the study reveal that at age 25, people with more education were more likely to be employed than people with less education. Among people who had completed a bachelor's degree or more education and were no longer enrolled in school, 91 percent were employed in civilian jobs during the October when they were age 25, in comparison to the 60 percent of high school dropouts who were employed in civilian jobs during the October when they were age 25.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) has recently released the Engaging Employers to Support Adult Career Pathways Programs issue brief as part of their ongoing effort to support the development of high-quality Adult Career Pathway (ACP) programs. The new issue brief provides strategies and promising practices that support States and programs tackling the issue of employer engagement.

The Urban Institute released a document discussing the expanded State and local poverty measures that have been developed by New York City, New York State, the Institute for Research on Poverty, and the Urban Institute itself. State and local expanded poverty measures have been used to provide new insights into poverty among population subgroups and regions of the State; estimate the extent to which government benefits, taxes, and work-related and medical expenses affect poverty; and estimate the effect of potential changes in government programs. The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Public Policy Institute of California are developing an expanded poverty measure for California and has released their testimony before the California State Senate Human Services Committee.

CLASP has released an updated resource entitled, Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Funding Toolkit. This toolkit is designed to help interagency State teams identify and facilitate 'braiding' of Federal resources to build career pathways for adults and out-of-school youth. This new edition includes State and local examples and revised program profiles reflecting critical legislative and administrative changes to key Federal programs. A new appendix identifies ten Federal funding sources that can be used to provide a wide range of support services.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report that is second in a series on changes in TANF caseload since the start of the economic downturn. The first paper covered the two years after the start of the recession from December 2007 to December 2009. This paper extends the analysis two years through December 2011. Both papers rely on TANF caseload data that were collected directly from States. Five key findings are presented and discussed throughout the report.