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.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs often serve young people who are expected to move toward independence while still developing basic skills needed for adulthood, such as managing money, maintaining housing, or making informed health and education decisions. This curriculum by the Virginia Department of Social Services offers a structured way to support that work through practical, ready-to-use workshops organized around key life domains like career preparation, money management, housing, education, health and nutrition, and risk prevention.

For TANF practitioners, the value is in the curriculum’s usability. Each topic includes multiple workshops with facilitator guides and supporting materials, which reduces the burden on staff to design programming from scratch. It can be used flexibly across settings: case management, group workshops, or partner-led programming.

Instead of relying on informal coaching or uneven program content, staff can use a shared curriculum that supports repeatable instruction across participants and sites. This helps create more continuity in services, especially for youth who need reinforcement over time rather than single-touch interventions.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners often need a clear way to identify what a participant can already do independently and where support is still needed, especially when working with youth and young adults. This Casey Family Programs toolkit provides that structure in a straightforward way for use in everyday case management. It helps translate broad goals like “become self-sufficient” into specific skill areas such as budgeting, communication, and managing daily responsibilities. The value for TANF work is that it creates a shared language between staff and participants, making progress easier to see and track. It also helps engage clients by turning abstract expectations into visible, achievable steps.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs frequently serve youth who are moving into adulthood without stable family support; basic planning around housing, money, and daily decision-making can determine whether they stabilize or cycle through crisis. This FosterClub toolkit gives TANF practitioners something concrete to use in those moments. It turns “transition planning” into practical activities that can be used directly in coaching sessions, rather than requiring staff to design their own materials. This toolkit addresses how young people are expected to navigate independence without structured, hands-on preparation. Practitioners can use it to make conversations more actionable and to help participants build real-world readiness step by step.

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network tipsheet focuses on how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can support children living with relatives or caregivers who are not receiving full family benefits. It fills a key gap for kinship families who often step in without financial preparation. TANF practitioners can use these strategies to design or improve child-only grants, ensuring support reaches the child without creating unnecessary barriers for caregivers. It also helps staff think through policy and implementation choices that better reflect the realities of kinship care.

The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) provides data on outcomes for youth transitioning out of foster care, including education, employment, and housing. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this is a practical tool for understanding where youth are struggling and what supports are working. TANF staff can use this data to refine programs, target services, and make the case for specific supports like employment or life skills programming. It helps shift practice from reactive to data informed and provides insight into achieving long-term outcomes.