This research brief, one of a series being prepared to help inform the public debate surrounding the reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, uses data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families to examine the outcomes for children of welfare leavers and current welfare recipients; outcomes examined related to child and adolescent health, school engagement, and social behavior. The outcomes of children from four groups were compared: (1) families currently receiving welfare; (2) families that left welfare between 1997 and 1999; (3) families with poverty-level incomes and no history of welfare receipt within the past 2 years; and (4) families with incomes at or above 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The findings indicated that children from families that had left welfare did not look significantly different from children in families currently receiving welfare on the following outcomes: (1) current health status; (2) school engagement; (3) skipping school; (4) extracurricular activity participation; (5) child level of behavioral/emotional problems; and (6) adolescent level of behavioral/emotional problems. However, adolescents of families that left welfare were more likely than adolescents of current welfare recipients to have been suspended or expelled from school in the past year. Children of current recipients were more likely than children of welfare leavers to have a physical, learning, or mental health condition that limits their activity. Across all the measures examined, children in the three low-income groups fared worse than children in more affluent families. The findings underscore the role of poverty, more than welfare status per se, as a marker of risk in children's lives. (Contains 27 endnotes.) (KB)