Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Amendment to Section 1 of the Wisconsin State Plan for Administration of the Block Grant to States for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Prepared by:
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development
Division of Economic Support
1 W. Wilson Street, P.O. Box 7935
Madison, WI 53707-7935
Section 1: General Provision Assurances
The State ensures the following:
Wisconsin will conduct a program designed to serve all political subdivisions in the State (not necessarily in uniform manner), provide assistance to needy
families with (or expecting) children, and provide parents with job preparation, work and support services to enable them to leave the program and become
self-sufficient.
The program will require a parent or caretaker receiving assistance to engage in work (as defined by the State) once the State determines that the parent or caretaker is ready to engage in work, or once the parent or caretaker has received assistance under the program for 24 months (whether or not consecutive), whichever is earlier.
Parents and caretakers receiving assistance under the program shall be engaged in work activities in accordance with section 407.
Reasonable steps shall be taken to restrict the use and disclosure of information about individuals and families receiving assistance under the program attributable to funds provided by the federal government.
Goals shall be established and action taken to prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with special emphasis on teenage pregnancies, and numerical goals shall be established for reducing the illegitimacy ratio of the State.
- Prevention and reduction of the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with a special emphasis on
adolescent pregnancies, has been and continues to be a priority in Wisconsin. Wisconsin provides funding for projects to address adolescent pregnancy
prevention, adolescent parent self-sufficiency, pregnancy counseling and adolescent resource parenting.
- Case management provided to teen parents in the Parental and Family Responsibility
(PFR) waiver
demonstration project included education on parenting, human growth and development, family planning and independent living skills. Although the PFR
demonstration ended in July 1997, many of these components are continuing to be used under W-2 case management for minor parents.
- The AFDC Benefit Cap (ABC) waiver demonstration project included a family planning information services component. A special feature of this demonstration project was the ABC Educational Grant Pool project. This project provided funding for local agencies to address barriers to delivering family planning information and services in their local communities. County and tribal agencies were invited to apply for the grant money. In 1996, nine agencies received a total of $230,000 to provide services.
In addition to the ABC Educational Grant Pool project, under the ABC demonstration, all tribal or county social/human services agencies were required to develop and implement a family planning information delivery plan. These plans provided a description of each agency’s in-house resources, community resources, barriers to delivering family planning services in their counties, and strategies for addressing these barriers. Implementation of these plans at the local level ensured that AFDC recipients were provided with resources to make informed decisions about having additional children. These projects and the base of information developed under ABC will continue to be utilized in W-2 to assist participants in making choices about their career and family.
- Based on knowledge gained from currently funded programs and initiatives, the Wisconsin Department of Health
and Family Services (DHFS) is developing a comprehensive state plan to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with a special emphasis on adolescent pregnancies.
The Secretaries of the Departments of Health and Family Services and Workforce Development are chairing the Executive Committee on Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention. A subcommittee with public and private sector members from around the state (including provider agencies, the Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction, the legal system, United Way, the State Medical Society, public health agencies, the faith community, private businesses, local government, the
media, and teens and parents) are partners in developing the plan and will be partners in the implementation of the plan. A series of community meetings being
held around the state provide for citizen input on the development of the plan. DHFS will complete the plan by the end of December 1997.
- Although minor parents living outside of an adult supervised living arrangement are not eligible to receive cash assistance under W-2, the W-2 agencies have been directed by the Department to put special emphasis on providing case management services to minor parents, regardless of their income, assets, or living arrangement. Similar to the PFR waiver demonstration project, case management will include discussions on family planning, money and time-management, career planning, and parenting and independent living skills. The case managers will refer the minor parents for other supportive and/or social services as needed.
Wisconsin will conduct a program (designed to reach state and local law enforcement officials, the educational system and relevant counseling services) that provides education and training on the problem of statutory rape so that teenage pregnancy prevention programs may be expanded in scope to include men. The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services’ plan to reduce adolescent pregnancies will address the issue of male responsibility. Programs will be developed to address adolescent males. In addition, the Department is concerned with and will be providing programming related to statutory rape and the issue of adult males who impregnate young teenage females. These programs will involve state and law enforcement officials, the educational system, the relevant counseling system, and the community at large.
TN# 97-1
Supersedes 8/22/96 submittal
Updated June 16, 2008