The Ohio Kinship and Adoption Navigator (OhioKAN) Program Manual offers a practical example of how coordinated family support services can be organized to better meet the needs of children and caregivers. Developed by Ohio’s Department of Children and Youth, the manual gives Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners a useful look at how programs can streamline referrals, improve communication across partners, and connect families to services more efficiently. For TANF agencies working to strengthen case management or build stronger community partnerships to support children and caregivers, this resource provides real-world guidance on creating systems that are easier for families to navigate and easier for staff to coordinate.

This Chapin Hall brief helps unpack how families actually move through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) over time, going beyond simple caseload counts to show how long families stay connected to support. One of the key insights is that child-only cases now make up about the same share of the caseload as adult recipient cases, shifting how programs need to think about engagement and service design. It also shows that child-only cases are 44% less likely to exit TANF at any point than adult-recipient cases, pointing to a group that may experience longer or more stable reliance on assistance.

For TANF practitioners, this brief highlights where systems may be working as intended—and where families may be getting “stuck” without clear pathways forward. Child-only cases often involve caregivers like relatives raising children without receiving benefits themselves, which can change how support needs to be structured. Practitioners can use these insights to rethink outreach, adjust case management strategies, and design supports that better match the different experiences within the caseload, rather than treating all cases the same.

This Urban Institute brief focuses on “child-only” cases—situations where children receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits without a parent in the assistance unit, often because they are living with relatives or other caregivers. These cases make up a significant share of TANF caseloads and are often treated the same as traditional households, despite having very different needs. The brief helps TANF practitioners better understand who these families are and where current supports may fall short. It points to gaps in services for both children and their caregivers and offers insight into how programs can more effectively identify and respond to these cases. For TANF staff, this means being better equipped to tailor services, strengthen caregiver support, and ensure children in nontraditional living arrangements are not overlooked.

Written by Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams and drawing on reforms implemented in Idaho, this report explores how child welfare systems can better support children by strengthening families and reducing unnecessary separation. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, the report reinforces an important reality: economic hardship is often closely connected to family instability. Families facing challenges related to employment, housing, or access to supportive services may also be at greater risk of child welfare involvement.

The report encourages TANF staff to think about how economic supports, employment services, and family-focused case management can strengthen child and family well-being. It also highlights the value of prevention-focused approaches and stronger collaboration across systems to help families remain safely together. For agencies working to advance family stability initiatives, the report offers practical ideas and perspectives that can inform planning, partnerships, and cross-system coordination.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced a new $7 million innovation challenge aimed at helping more children and youth find safe, stable, and permanent homes. The “A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge” will reward child welfare agencies that achieve the highest foster home-to-child ratios, as well as those demonstrating the greatest improvement over a one-year period beginning in October 2026. These performance-based bonuses reflect ACF’s broader goal of achieving a 1:1 ratio of foster homes to children in foster care nationwide. 

Under the challenge, the state with the highest foster home-to-child ratio will receive $3 million, while the second-place state will receive $2 million. Two additional states showing the most improvement will each receive $1 million. Registration for the challenge opens May 14, 2026, and closes June 30, 2026. The competition period will run from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, with winners expected to be announced in November 2027. 

To participate, child welfare jurisdictions must be part of ACF’s “A Home for Every Child” initiative and formally opt into the new Program Improvement Plan pilot announced through Child and Family Services Review Technical Bulletin #14. 

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this challenge highlights the importance of strengthening family stability before crises escalate. TANF agencies can use this opportunity to explore partnerships and innovative approaches that connect economic mobility, workforce services, and child well-being efforts.

Financial instability among older adults is becoming an increasingly important issue for many families served by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), particularly in multigenerational and kinship households. The Institute for Research on Poverty will host a webinar on May 20, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to examine challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and housing instability among older adults while also discussing policy strategies that can improve their economic security. For TANF practitioners, the webinar will provide helpful context for understanding how financial hardship affects entire family systems, including grandparents and older caregivers raising children. This webinar can also support conversations around cross-system collaboration, benefit access, and service planning for households that may be balancing caregiving responsibilities with economic strain.

From the Wheatley Institute at BYU, this report examines how economic shifts, education gaps, and digital engagement patterns are influencing men’s participation in work, relationships, and family life. The resource connects broader structural trends to challenges in marriage formation and father engagement. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, it provides context for understanding barriers men face in employment and family roles, and it informs efforts to strengthen fatherhood supports, workforce engagement, and family stability strategies.

This research from the Institute for Family Studies highlights differences in reported relationship satisfaction depending on how couples meet, suggesting that in-person connections may be associated with stronger long-term outcomes. It adds nuance to how relationship formation pathways can shape family experiences. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can use it to support discussions about healthy relationship development and the factors that contribute to stable partnerships and families over time.

This resource from the Institute for Family Studies explores how online dating is changing the way relationships begin and the potential implications for commitment and long-term family formation. It raises questions about how modern relationship patterns influence stability and partner selection. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) settings, it can be used to inform relationship education discussions that focus on intentionality, communication, and the broader context shaping the successful development of families today.