The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued a Final Rule to make changes to the TANF program regulations to require states to maintain policies and practices that prevent TANF funded assistance from being used in any electronic benefit transfer (EBT) transaction in any liquor store; any casino, gambling casino, or gaming establishment; or any retail establishment that provides adult-oriented entertainment. Provisions become effective immediately.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has released the TANF work participation rates for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. Nationwide, more states met the work requirement in FY 2013 than in FY 2012, but the work participation rates declined slightly compared to those from FY 2012. Thirty-two states and territories met their work requirement in FY 2013, compared to 29 states and territories in FY 2012.

This brief explores kinship families and the importance of TANF to those families, the two types of TANF grants a relative caregiver may receive (child-only and family), and a Kinship TANF Model that draws from different state and county efforts to stabilize and support kinship families. Additionally, the brief recommends separate kinship policies, programs, and practices that are designed to help kinship families specifically.

Compared to a few decades ago, low-income children today have better access to healthcare, fewer are born to teen mothers, fewer live in foster care, and their parents have more education. However, the circumstances and outcomes of higher-income children have advanced even more rapidly, leading to expanding inequality in the resources that boost child development. Additionally, in some ways, the circumstances of low-income children have gotten worse. This report consists of a consensus plan from researchers at the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. The plan would reduce poverty and improve opportunities for those at the lowest income levels.

Developed by the Urban Institute for the U.S. Department of Education, this guidance document recommends data collection strategies and data system structures to ensure Promise Neighborhoods can manage and produce measurable results. While this guidance document is written specifically for Promise Neighborhoods, these recommendations can be applied to other place-based initiatives.

On September 18 - 19, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance sponsored a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) technical assistance (TA) site visit to the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) (Region X). This visit was in response to rising TANF caseloads in the State, challenges addressing budgetary concerns, issues meeting the employment and service needs of TANF participants, and other concerns stemming from the ongoing effects of the recent recession. During this visit, TA coaches facilitated sessions in the following areas: program assessment, performance-based contracting, and change management. Staff visited the Community Works Project in Portland, Oregon and the Oregon Department of Human Services headquarters in Salem, Oregon and participated in the TANF Alliance Meeting at Central City Concern in Portland, Oregon. After each session, TA coaches were able to provide recommendations and key steps for implementing changes to their processes to improve collaboration with contractors and case management for TANF clients.

This e-learning guide from the Office of Community Services, Compassion Capital Fund (CCF)/Strengthening Communities Fund (SCF) is designed to help organizations identify, evaluate, and incorporate effective practices into their service delivery to improve organizational performance. Sections include: benchmarking basics; identifying areas of need; identifying effective practices; validating and classifying practices; and promoting and implementing effective practices.

The Office of Family Assistance held a webinar on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 from 2:00-3:30 pm EST on Service Options for Relative Caregivers in Child-Only Cases. Today almost half of the national TANF caseload consists of child-only cases, where the child is the only individual in the household receiving cash assistance. In a significant portion of these cases, a relative is caring for the child. There has been limited literature, however, on the strengths, barriers and needs of these children and their relative caregivers. There has also been limited information about the supportive services they may receive through TANF or other human services programs. In this facilitated webinar, presenters provided a descriptive and demographic overview of the relative child-only caseload, as well as the policies and practices that support them. It included examples from a kinship navigator program, as well as a TANF and child welfare system collaboration initiative.

In this webinar participants were able to:

• Understand the importance and prevalence of, as well as the strengths, barriers, and outcomes related to, relative caregivers and children in TANF child-only cases.
• Hear experiences and lessons learned from a kinship navigator program that is providing supportive services to relatives and children in child-only cases.
• Learn about collaborations between TANF and Child Welfare systems to share data and provide services to relative caregivers and children.

For users interested in the transcript of the webinar, the webinar recording is closed-captioned.