The Administration for Children and Families' Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Division of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Management and the Office of Child Support Enforcement hosted a Webinar entitled "Partnering for Children: Collaboration Between Tribal TANF and Tribal Child Support." This Webinar provided the goals and objectives of the Tribal TANF and Tribal Child Support program, including conditions of eligibility for both programs. During this Webinar, speakers identified the differences between State and tribally administered TANF and child support programs. Webinar participants also had an opportunity to hear about collaborative approaches from representatives from Tribal TANF and Tribal Child Support programs at the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Mathematica released a report on the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the nation's largest source of training and employment services, in which they conducted a study of States' and local areas' use of eight WIA policy waivers. This final report provides descriptive analysis of the findings from each phase of data collection, discussing the reasons for waiver requests and implementation of waivers at the State and local levels, the successes and challenges of these efforts, and lessons that can be learned from these States' and local areas' waiver use.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that discusses issues and potential options for: 1) TANF's role in providing cash assistance to low-income families, 2) measuring TANF work participation, and 3) information on States' use of TANF funds. The report also reviews relevant Federal laws, regulations, and agency documents, along with transcripts from relevant congressional hearings from 2009 through 2012, which provide information on issues and options identified by members of Congress.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a Webinar, "Integrating Comprehensive Case Management Strategies into TANF Programs." The Webinar provided an overview of various methods for creating an efficient and integrated approach to providing case management services with TANF populations. This Webinar also offered TANF-serving organizations information on program models and strategies that address intensive case management, service integration, and barriers to service. Program representatives presented information on their program design and implementation, population served, partnerships, challenges to service delivery, and lessons learned.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar, "Leveraging TANF Funds and Strategic Partnerships to Improve Housing Stability and Economic Outcomes for Low-Income Families." The webinar provided an overview of Federal regulations relating to the use of TANF and Maintenance of Effort funds, highlighted promising State and local program models for individuals at-risk, provided examples of allowable uses of TANF funds for homeless stability and employment services, and discussed strategies for choosing and implementing various program models and partnerships.

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 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.

On November 28, 2012, the Office of Family Assistance hosted the second Webinar in a series highlighting promising practices for building sustainable subsidized employment programs. This Webinar provided an overview of the available funding streams for subsidized employment programs; discussed the varied funding sources' requirements and restrictions and how they can be combined and leveraged; and outlined practical strategies used by peer agencies to create/expand subsidized employment programs for TANF participants and low-income workers. Presenters for this Webinar included representatives from MDRC, the Connecticut Department of Labor, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in Connecticut, and the Ohio Human Relations Council.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Region VI hosted a hands-on and interactive training for TANF programs on September 11-13, 2012. The 2012 Fiscal and Data Management Workshop in Dallas, Texas covered topics from caseload reduction credits and maintenance of effort (MOE) to cost allocation, audits, and penalties and provided TANF program representatives with the most comprehensive and hands-on training on managing TANF programs available. The workshop brought together State TANF directors and fiscal staff to strategize on ways to manage TANF dollars, collect, analyze, and report TANF participant and program data. Attendees learned strategies for maximizing TANF dollars and local partnerships and worked with peers to understand promising strategies for improving program performance and participant outcomes.

The Office of Family Assistance, Division of Tribal TANF has posted National Tribal TANF characteristics data for fiscal years (FY) 2008, 2009, and 2010. The characteristics data has been produced for the following categories of information:

• Number of individuals participating in Tribal TANF work activities, by activity,
• Adults by work participation status,
• Adults by relationship to head of household,
• Types of families receiving assistance (e.g., one-parent, two-parent, child-only), and
• Families by the number of children in the family.