Higher family incomes are associated with a variety of positive effects on child well-being, and by connecting parents to career pathways in high-demand industries, states can foster more family stability. In this brief from Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the ways in which TANF funding can be used to support career pathway programs are discussed. The brief provides recommendations to help states increase access to career pathways (e.g., state and local service coordination), as well as a discussion of some benefits of gradually phasing out critical supports as parents start on the path to stable careers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application data for the first quarter of FY 2017 (October-December 2017). The data include families receiving assistance through state TANF and maintenance-of-effort (MOE) separate state programs (SSP). In the first quarter of FY 2017, there was a monthly average of 1.45 million families receiving TANF and SSP cash assistance, representing approximately 3.72 million recipients. The monthly average number of TANF applications received in the first quarter of FY 2017 was approximately 242,000.

The Office of Family Assistance has issued guidance that informs states of their revised State Family Assistance Grant (SFAG) amounts for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 reduced the amount of funds available for states by 0.33 percent in fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018 to set aside funds for research, technical assistance, and evaluation.

When the Aid to Families with Dependent Children legislation was replaced with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 1996, the following years saw a decrease in the number of families receiving cash assistance. In this report from the Congressional Research Service, TANF caseload numbers over time are examined and trends in child poverty are highlighted.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation hosted this webinar in October 2016; the webinar recording is available online. The webinar is part of a series discussing lessons learned from the Foundation’s Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative, which is working with youth, especially those who have been justice system involved, homeless, or in the child welfare system, to address the challenges that make it difficult for them to achieve degrees or maintain jobs. LEAP sites have aimed to make their services responsive to youth who have experienced trauma, since research shows that suffering extreme stress and adverse experiences in childhood can impair physical development in ways that have long-term consequences. On the webinar, three LEAP sites discussed how they have made their services trauma-responsive.