1. Belonging Everywhere & Nowhere: Correne Saunders, MPP Catherine E. Born, Ph.D. Pamela C. Ovwigho, Ph.D. Paper presented at the 48 th annual workshop of the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics This research was funded by the Maryland Department of Human Resources August 2008 Children in Non-Parental TANF Cases

2. 2 Background Rising proportion of non-parental TANF cases in most states. Non-parental TANF cases are exempt from most TANF requirements. Despite involvement with other public programs such as child support and child welfare, they are not the target population of any program & may have unmet service needs.

3. 3 TANF focuses on case types Maryland’s TANF caseload (10/05) N = 22,793

4. 4 Case types don’t always line up with family relationships Children in Maryland’s active TANF caseload (10/05) N = 43,270

5. 5 Relationships in non-parental cases One out of four TANF children live with a relative. Most are grandchildren.

6. 6 Children’s ages Children living with relatives tend to be older than children in parental cases. Non-ParentalParental

7. 7 Welfare History Children in non-parental cases and those with a non-recipient parent have longer welfare histories.

8. 8 Welfare History: Children Age 7 and Younger On average, young children in non-parental cases have received TANF for three-fifths of their lives. ParentalNon-Parental

9. 9 Child Support Status Children in non-parental TANF cases are slightly more likely to have an active child support case Non-ParentalParental

10. 10 Paternity Status Children living with relatives are more likely to be waiting for paternity establishment Non-ParentalParental

11. 11 Child Welfare Children living with relatives are more likely to concurrently receive child welfare-related social services 1 and TANF 1 “Social Services” includes Adoption, Foster Care, Child Protective Services, Kinship Care, Intensive Family Services, Intake, Requests of Other Agencies, Services to Families, and the Guardianship Assistance Project Non-ParentalParental

12. 12 Kinship Care However, fewer than 10% of children living with relatives were concurrently receiving formal Kinship Care services

13. 13 Maltreatment Complete maltreatment history data are available for children born 1/99 or later. Among these young children, those living with relatives were more likely to have been reported as a victim in at least one investigation. Non-ParentalParental

14. 14 Maltreatment, Cont. Among those reported as victims of maltreatment, the report was most recent for children in parental child-only cases. Non-Parental Parental

15. 15 Conclusions While many children receiving TANF have risk factors, children in non-parental TANF cases seem to be worse off: –Longer welfare histories –More likely to be waiting for paternity establishment –More likely to have been determined to be a victim of child maltreatment

16. 16 Conclusions, Cont. While children in non-parental TANF cases are involved with multiple public programs concurrently, it is not clear what services they are actually receiving: –Many are still waiting for paternity establishment before child support can be ordered –Few are receiving supportive/long-term social services such as formal Kinship Care

17. 17 Implications States are beginning to pay more attention to the TANF child only caseload, but our results suggest this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of cases that may be of concern. We need to know more about the children and adults involved in relative TANF cases, which requires further study; and It may be time to seriously consider a separate & targeted program for these families in order to prevent gaps in service provision.

18. 18 Contact Information Thank you! Pamela Ovwigho, Research Director Family Welfare Research & Training Group University of Maryland, School of Social Work 525 W. Redwood St., Baltimore, MD povwigho@ssw.umaryland.edu www.familywelfare.umaryland.edu