Strengthening TANF for States and Needy Families
This brief offers specific recommendations to address four problems with TANF. First, too few needy families receive TANF help, with significant variation across states. Second, TANF did not respond during the recession. Third, TANF has been unresponsive to caseload changes, particularly that half the cases only include children. Fourth, TANF?s limitations heighten families? need for a whole package of supports. The recommendations include increasing federal funding for states to better accommodate increases in need; aligning TANF incentives with the goals of work, economic stability, and child well-being; and streamlining access to the full range of supports for low-income working families.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Update on Families Served and Work Participation
Excerpt] The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, created in 1996, is one of the key federal funding streams provided to states to assist low-income families. A critical aspect of TANF has been its focus on employment and self-sufficiency, and the primary means to measure state efforts in this area has been TANF’s work participation requirements. When the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) reauthorized TANF, it also made changes that were generally expected to strengthen these work requirements. Given the impending extension or reauthorization of TANF, this testimony primarily draws on previous GAO work to focus on (1) how the welfare caseload and related spending have changed since TANF was created and (2) how states have met work participation rates since DRA. To address these issues, in work conducted from August 2009 to May 2010, GAO analyzed state data reported to the Department of Healthand Human Services (HHS); surveyed state TANF administrators in 50 states and the District of Columbia; conducted site visits to Florida, Ohio, and Oregon, selected to provide geographic diversity and variation in TANF program characteristics; and reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and research. In July 2011, GAO updated this work by analyzing state data reported to HHS since that time. In addition, GAO gathered information on caseload changes through its forthcoming work on TANF child-only cases.
Rights, inclusion and citizenship: a good news story about learning in the early years
ABSTRACT Including all children is something many education settings aspire to, yet the outcome of children realising their right to an inclusive education remains elusive for far too many. In this article we present the narrative of an inclusive early childhood education setting. The first author undertook an ethnographic study of the experiences of an disabled child in a kindergarten1 in Aotearoa New Zealand as part of her Master of Education degree. This was done with the express intention of relaying a narrative of active participation, inclusion and citizenship experienced by that child and their family within that community. The collective narrative that emerged highlights what is possible for the meaningful inclusion of disabled children, not just in New Zealand but internationally, when communities act with inclusive intent. In this article we identify the themes of learner identity, adopting a pedagogy for participation, establishing a culture of belonging and contribution, and lastly, using the environment as the third teacher, which emerged after analysing interviews with some of the participants. Together these themes combine to provide an evaluative framework to review inclusive curriculum and performance in early childhood settings.