Child Welfare and TANF Implementation: Recent Findings

Publication Date: July 2002

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Social conditions

Type:

Abstract:

This report examines recent research findings about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) implementation as it has affected the nation's child welfare system. The nation's program of cash aid for needy families with children (TANF) and its program to protect and care for children who are abused or neglected (child welfare services) are linked by history and share some of the same clients who have similar service needs. Assessing the full significance of the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) to the child welfare system is complicated by the 1997 enactment of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (P.L. 105-89), which made direct and major changes to the child welfare system, and by the fact that TANF implementation generally occurred during a strong economy.

Some child advocates were concerned that 1996 welfare reform initiatives ? including time limits, family cap policies, and work requirements ? might harm children and/or place new strains on the child welfare system. Research on the effect of TANF implementation has not produced conclusive findings. Changes in the size of the child welfare caseload have not been attributed to welfare reform, although certain work requirements may increase the incidence of child neglect.

Welfare reform also changed specific child welfare funding streams and renewed calls for stronger collaboration between child welfare and cash aid programs. Here too the evidence of an effect on the child welfare system is inconclusive. Greater collaboration has occurred in some locations and the flexible funding of TANF, combined with a strong economy and rapidly declining cash assistance caseload, meant new resources became available for child welfare services in some states. Child welfare administrators are concerned, however, that because this money is not dedicated to their agencies it may not always be available. Further, the 1996 welfare reform continues to base eligibility for federal foster care and adoption assistance on whether the family a child is removed from was (or would be) eligible for cash aid as it existed in prior law (Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC). This increased the complexity of determining eligible federal foster care and adoption assistance costs and, as the 1996 income and resource standards become dated, might diminish federal child welfare funds by establishing a diminishing pool of children eligible for federally reimbursable assistance.

Finally, some child welfare advocates have also been concerned that children in families where no adult is receiving a TANF cash benefit ("child-only" cases) receive the necessary support, services and protection they require. The percentage of child-only cases has grown since enactment of welfare reform, although the actual number of these families being served has declined. Some states have used TANF funds to enact programs specific to the needs of child-only families, and many require involvement of child welfare agencies to access these new supports.