Policy & Practice | Winter 2023

legislative update By Marina Pascali

TANF Status Quo Changes for Child Welfare: How Should States Navigate this New Landscape?

E arlier this year, Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill that paired raising the debt ceiling with the imple mentation of spending cuts and new work requirements on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The bill, which was signed into law shortly after its passage, is expected to reshape how states manage their TANF programs and to affect such items as the level of work requirements imposed and the number of families who will continue receiving benefits. This impact will be felt dif ferently across states, as each state government takes its own bespoke approach to TANF spending. Complicating the picture is recent research finding a strong correlation between increased restrictions on TANF spending and increased rates of children placed in foster care, which has child welfare implications for states as well. This article delves into some of the top-line findings of that research, the new TANF rules that went into effect this fall, and how one may potentially affect the other. Since the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act in 2005, states have been under greater pressure to reduce overall TANF caseloads by moving TANF recipients from assistance into full-time employment. For example, across 2012 to 2016, Kansas reduced the time limit on TANF benefits from 60 months down to 24. Although some states, like Minnesota, eased work requirements, more than two dozen have implemented tighter restrictions that more selectively limit access to TANF benefits.

Effect of TANF Cases on Child Welfare Outcomes As a recent study highlights, however, narrowing access to TANF benefits, while intended to transi tion more families into more robust employment situations, has also had ripple effects on child welfare outcomes. That study, led by Dr. Michelle Motoyama-Johnson 1 of the Ohio State University College of Social Work, unearthed some significant findings on the link between TANF and child welfare. The state TANF policy restrictions implemented between 2004 and 2016 correlated with a 13 percent reduction in caseloads, which in turn led to “statistically significant increases in neglect victims, total

case care placements, and foster care placements for reasons of neglect.” This included: n Significant increases in neglected

victims, with more than 44 additional neglect victims per 100,000 people.

n Significant increases of foster care placements, by 14 to 22 per 100,000 people. n In the two years following the imple mentation of TANF restrictions, foster care cases increased by as much as 20 percent. n Conversely, the study authors deter mined that, when "extrapolating these numbers to the 2015 U.S. child population of 73.7 million,” easing TANF restrictions could have

See Legislative Update on page 37

Illustration by Chris Campbell

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Winter 2023 Policy & Practice