Recent Changes in Alabama Welfare and Work, Child Care, and Child Welfare Systems

Alabama has a long history of providing a modest safety net for low-income families and children, supplying more limited income support than almost any other state. The state’s policies toward lowincome families have been closely linked to federal policy, with little state funding beyond that required to draw down available federal funds. Since the first round of site visits, a large influx of federal and tobacco settlement funding has allowed the state to expand services in ways that can strengthen its historically weak safety net. Many of the changes in the state’s safety net in the past two years have been in response to the federal welfare reforms of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), the continued presence of a federal consent decree for the child welfare system, and the investment of newly available financial resources from the nearly $200 million tobacco settlement which has been earmarked for initiatives in the areas of child care, child welfare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, education, and other social services. In addition, until 2000, Alabama had not taken advantage of the larger than originally anticipated availability of federal TANF funding. However, in March 2000, Governor Siegelman approved spending the state’s accumulated TANF surplus on a number of initiatives that went beyond the minimum necessary to meet federal TANF mandates. Over half of these funds were targeted to subsidized child care. Surplus TANF funds were also approved to support fatherhood initiatives, kinship care provider demonstration pilots, transportation initiatives for welfare and low-income individuals, substance abuse screening and treatment for welfare recipients, and specialized assessment and planning services for TANF recipients in domestic violence situations. This report focuses on Alabama’s cash assistance, workforce development, child care, and child welfare systems for lowincome families with children. Information presented in this report comes primarily from in-person interviews with managers and front-line workers. Most local interviews were conducted in Jefferson County (Birmingham), the state’s largest urban area. Additionally, the child care team conducted focus groups with parents and child care providers in Birmingham; and the child welfare team carried out telephone interviews with child welfare administrators in four other counties. State-level officials responsible for TANF, child care, and child welfare were also interviewed to obtain a statewide overview of the system and to learn about new policy directions and initiatives. Interview Recent Changes in Alabama Welfare and Work, Child Care, and Child Welfare Systems