Authored by Lynne Fender and Jen Bernstein. This Urban Institute report was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. This study describes policies and practices in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas designed to coordinate the child support enforcement program, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to secure and sustain appropriate health care coverage for child support-eligible children. Based on site visits to the 3 States, the report documents both successes in cross-program coordination as well as challenges to effective coordination.

From the Rockefeller Institute on Government, this report provides information on a policy forum held on performance management in New York State. The forum included presentations on Federal, State, and local performance management strategies. Specifically, the New York City Human Resources Administration highlighted the JobStat system, which is used to monitor 26 job centers in New York City for welfare and human services.

Authored by Kristin S. Seefeldt and Sean M. Orzol. In 1996, welfare reform legislation imposed a 60-month lifetime limit on TANF benefits. The authors use four waves of data from the Women's Employment Study to determine which personal characteristics are associated with accumulating months on TANF at low (less than 20 months of receipt), medium (20 to 39 months), and high (40 to 60 months) levels. They find that many of the same factors are associated with being in both the medium and high accumulation groups, relative to the low group. However, demographic variables, such as the presence of a partner, race, and the number of children seem to matter more in determining whether someone will accumulate a low as opposed to a medium amount of time on TANF. The presence of human capital problems, as well as persistent personal and family challenges--such as children with health problems, domestic violence, and drug use--all greatly increase the likelihood of accumulating many months toward the 60-month time limit.

Authored by Lashawn Richburg-Hayes and Stephen Freedman. This MDRC report analyzes the experiences of welfare "cyclers" using five MDRC studies of welfare reform initiatives during the mid- to late-1990s. Overall, cyclers constituted a relatively small portion of the welfare caseload (9 percent).

Since the inception of PRWORA in 1996, welfare clients were given a 60-month time limit for the amount of time on case assistance. The first time that clients reached their time limits in California was January of 2003. This report outlines how time limits were implemented in California and the effects that the time limit has on low-income families.

From the Welfare Policy Research Project, this research article reviews a study in California on the effects of the 60-month TANF time limit. As a result of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, all adults receiving welfare are subject to a five year lifetime limit for cash benefits. Authors discuss how these time limits have affected families enrolled in the CalWORKS TANF program.

This research project, an intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, assesses the well-being of low-income children and families in the post-welfare reform era. The project examines strategies families have used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. This project focuses on how these strategies affect children's lives, emphasizing their health and development, as well as their need for, and use of, social services.

Authored by Deanna T. Schexnayder, Daniel Schroeder, Laura Lein, David Dominguez, Karen Douglas, and Freddie Richards. This research was conducted as part of the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. This report explores the characteristics of families who left or were diverted from TANF and addresses a number of measures including obtaining employment and participation in other government programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps.

Authored by Robert G. Wood and Anu Rangarajan. Based on four rounds of annual follow-up surveys with an early group of New Jersey TANF recipients, this issue brief focuses on those who have left the welfare rolls and are not working. About one in four recipients in this group were in this status throughout much of the study's follow-up period. The researchers note that the group is diverse; some recipients have substantial alternative sources of financial support, such as Supplemental Security Income, unemployment insurance, or earnings from a spouse or partner. However, those who lack alternative supports (the "least stable" leavers -- representing about 1 in 10 of this early group) get by on very little income and are at high risk of extreme economic hardship. Although relatively few people spend extended periods in this status, a substantial number spend at least some time in it.

This is the fourth in a series of working papers designed to examine what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (effective through September 30, 2002). PRWORA ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Federal entitlement to assistance for eligible needy families with children, and created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant.