Belonging Everywhere & Nowhere:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. Non-Parental Parental

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

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

11. Child Welfare Children living with relatives are more likely to concurrently receive child welfare-related social services1 and TANF Non-Parental Parental 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

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

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-Parental Parental

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

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. 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. 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. 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