Families migrate to the United States for opportunity. Whether they leave extreme poverty or violence or reunite with relatives who made the move before them, immigrants seek opportunity. Sometimes circumstances force families to make tough decisions. Sometimes circumstances and tough decisions manifest in families entering the United States…

The National Center for Children in Poverty is developing a series of issue briefs on children and welfare reform to help policymakers, community leaders, and advocates use the opportunities afforded by welfare changes in ways that are most likely to benefit both children and adults. This second issue brief focuses on the impact of federal and…

This report presents key findings from a review of data focusing on child care arrangements among people who have left welfare. Most states have conducted studies of former welfare recipients using administrative data, surveys of welfare leavers, or a combination of the two. Data from these surveys indicate that most people who have left welfare…

This report examines whether people who left welfare between 1997 and 1999 were more disadvantaged or less job-ready than were an early group who left welfare between 1995 and 1997. The study compared barriers to work and economic outcomes using data from the National Survey of America's Families. Overall, results found little evidence of poorer…

This brief presents 10 key findings about welfare reform, using research from the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project. Welfare reform has taken hold, and, in the immediate aftermath of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), states have made major changes to their welfare systems that…

This sixth annual report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2000, reflecting changes since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in 1996 and highlighting benefits under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), now Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); the Food Stamp program; and Supplement…

Older teens living in families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) face serious sociodemographic disadvantages. When combined with the characteristic risk-taking behaviors of adolescence, these disadvantages pose a threat to TANF teens' immediate and future physical, psychological, and emotional health and to their long-term…

The mission of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children through age 4 who are at nutritional risk. WIC provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to health care and other social services.…

This report examines the impact of the 1996 Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) on the college enrollment of welfare recipients who completed high school. The report highlights the lower college enrollment rates among recipients in the post-Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) period and notes the impact…

Describes the provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, also known as the Welfare Reform Act, and discusses implications for young children with disabilities, their families, and early-intervention programs under Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (DB)

The legacy of racial and ethnic disparities in the United States seeds new concerns in the current era of devolution. As state policymakers receive greater discretion and flexibility in how they implement federally funded social programs, the socioeconomic divide between Whites and minorities is growing. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work…

This paper summarizes changes in key elements of welfare policy and in closely related policies on child support enforcement and sex education and family planning programs. Drawing on a conceptual framework that highlights how incentives created by public policy can affect demographic behaviors, the paper concludes that, as Congress intended,…

This report describes policy and program changes affecting New York's low-income families, issues related to these changes, and ways that city, state, and federal governments might further enhance the well-being of low-income families. Part 1 reviews major new policies enacted by the federal and state governments since the mid-1990s, noting how…

Research continues to provide valuable information about the effects of welfare changes on families receiving public assistance. This working paper is the second in a series of three examining what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Following an introduction…

Research continues to provide valuable information about the effects of welfare changes on families receiving public assistance. This working paper is the third in a series of three examining what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Following an introduction…