Between 1996 and May 2006, the TANF caseload has decreased 75%, leaving 65,000 families on the welfare caseload as of May 2006. While Texas has experienced a high rate of caseload decline, statistics show that many families have left welfare for reasons other than employment, including sanctioning due to noncompliance.

From the School of Social Work at the University of California–Berkley, this resource offers different perspectives of poverty throughout social science disciplines, including Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Psychology, and Anthropology. Additionally, this paper provides views of poverty held by students entering and exiting graduate social work programs, and provides an overview of staff training around welfare reform at a local social service agency.

This brief, from the Heritage Institute, outlines the objectives of the TANF program and progress towards meeting its goals. In the past ten years of welfare reform, authors argue that the legislation was a success in reducing welfare dependence and increasing employment; reducing child poverty; and reducing out-of-wedlock childbearing and strengthening marriage.

The welfare reform of 1996 granted states more flexibility in spending for TANF by receiving block grant funding. This policy brief from the National Poverty Center reviews TANF spending, and found that state spending on public welfare programs increased from 19.4 percent in 1980 to 26.9 percent in 2003, which is attributed to medical vendor payments for Medicaid.

From Mathematica Policy Research, this report outlines the implementation of the TANF in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and provides the different approaches across the States. Authors examine how the approaches have affected caseload declines, as well as the employment among their caseloads.

This report, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, provides strategies for implementing state-funded TANF programs to better serve the families on the caseload. Authors offer information on why a solely state-funded program is beneficial as well as a target population for such services.

This article reviews how the three states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have fared under the 1996 welfare reform. Researchers from Mathematica Policy Research, provide information on how the policy changes have affected the TANF population with regards to short and long term outcomes.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy that took place in Dallas, Texas from February 2-4, 2003 at the Fairmont Hotel-Dallas.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy III that took place in St. Louis, Missouri from March 8-11, 2005 to foster collaboration to improve administration and delivery of services to TANF families.

This report provides an overview of the promising practices presented at the joint Peer TA/Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Big Five Roundtable. The California Department of Social Services made a Technical Assistance (TA) request on behalf of their largest urban center (Los Angeles) and on behalf of four very similar urban centers (Chicago, Houston, New York City and Philadelphia.) The five target cities were led through a series of facilitated discussions involving the core subject areas of performance management and contracting, saturation engagement, diversion and immediate employment, and re-engagement and sanctions.