1. The Family Assistance Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP)
2. Family Independence Work Program (FIND WORK)

1. The Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP) — which provides temporary assistance to needy families.
2. Family Independence Work Program (FIND WORK) — an employment, training, and education program for adult FITAP recipients.

Together both these programs serve to decrease family reliance on cash assistance and provide job assistance to help families achieve self-sufficiency. Louisiana has also gone a step further by extending TANF resources to a broader segment of at-risk families and individuals in a group of programs know as TANF Initiatives.

Key features of the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program:

In addition to conforming to the major federal TANF rules, including a lifetime limit on receipt of cash assistance for adult-headed families of 60 months and a mandatory work requirement for adult recipients, the State has adopted several distinctive requirements for Louisiana families receiving cash assistance.
These include:

• A 24-month time limit on receipt of cash assistance during any five-year period;
• A school attendance requirement for children in FITAP families;
• A time-limited $900 monthly earnings disregard for FITAP recipients;
• Mandatory screening of all adult recipients for illegal drug use;
• Transitional assistance payments for FITAP recipients who leave the program due to employment.

Two of these requirements, the 24-month time limit and the school attendance requirement, obligate case managers to allocate significant time to monitoring recipient compliance.

Key Features of the FIND Work program:

Adult recipients from single-parent cases must work or participate in work-related activities for at least 30 hours per week, or 20 hours per week if they have a child under age 6. In a two-parent household, both parents must work or participate in work-related activities for a combined total of at least 35 hours per week, without child care, and 55 hours with child care.

Work activities may include:

• unsubsidized or subsidized employment;
• unpaid work experience;
• on-the-job training;
• job search/job readiness activities;
• vocational education;
• secondary school attendance and GED preparation;
• education directly related to employment (for recipients without a high school diploma or GED);
• job skills training directly related to employment;
• community service; and
• provision of child care services for an individual who is participating in community service.

Visit the project website.

Financial Incentives
A time-limited $900 monthly earnings disregard for FITAP recipients.

Program Requirements
Mandatory screening of all adult recipients for illegal drug use.A school attendance requirement for children in FITAP families.

Social/Support Services
Transitional assistance payments for FITAP recipients who leave the program due to employment.FITAP recipients must attend a parenting skills class.Transportation assistance provided for those in the FIND Work Program.

Time Limits
A 24-month time limit on receipt of cash assistance during any five-year period.A time-limited $900 monthly earnings disregard for FITAP recipients.

To assess implementation and effectiveness of four programs financed with TANF block grant funds and operated by agencies other than DSS.

To analyze over time key changes in FITAP caseload indicators and determine whether the allocation of TANF Initiatives program funds is being directed effectively to parishes with relatively high concentrations of poor families.

To analyze over time key changes in FITAP caseload indicators and determine whether the allocation of TANF Initiatives program funds is being directed effectively to parishes with relatively high concentrations of poor families.

To analyze the employment and earnings outcomes of FITAP recipients, both while they receive cash assistance and after they leave FITAP.

• Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Family Support (OFS),
• Director, Division of Quality Assurance, OFS,
• Director, Division of Field Operations, OFS,
• Deputy Director, Office of Information Services,
• Director, Contract Accountability Review Team, Division of Quality Assurance, OFS,
• Manager, Budget and Business Services, OFS,
• Director, Program Review and Evaluation Section, Division of Quality Assurance, OFS,
• Training and Development Program Manager, Training Section, Division of Quality Assurance, OFS,
• Assistant Director, FIND Work Program, OFS,
• Assistant Director, Financial Assistance, OFS.

Caddo,
Calcasieu,
Concordia,
East Baton Rouge,
Jefferson,
Lafayette,
Lincoln,
Ouachita,
Orleans,
Rapides, and
St. Mary.

Louisiana

Five parishes were selected because of their large caseloads and prominence in the state. Several parishes were included that have small caseloads and are located in predominantly rural areas. Finally, we included parishes with a range of economic conditions, including those with both high and low unemployment rates and poverty rates. To ensure regional diversity, we included at least one parish from each of the eight DSS regions in the state.

• As of 2001, the FITAP cash assistance caseload had declined by 60% since program implementation in Jan 1997. Most of the decline stems from a drop in single parent family cases.
• Of the approximately 100,000 FITAP recipients between January 1997 and September 2001, 20% received cash assistance for 24 months.
• Among those who left assistance in 2000, 28% returned within 12 months.
• FITAP and FIND Work have been effective in moving all recipients, not just those who are the most job-ready, off cash assistance. Our analysis of several key recipient characteristics indicates that the FITAP caseload has not become increasingly comprised of disadvantaged recipients.
• Many recipients on assistance face serious challenges. Among adult recipients in FITAP in September 2001, about half were repeat recipients; one quarter had received AFDC assistance prior to the start of TANF; nearly 40 percent had not been employed at all during the previous year; and half did not have a high school diploma or GED.
• Between 35 and 40 percent of FITAP recipients participate in a work activity in any given month. Recipients are exempt if they have a child under one.
• Approximately half of adult recipients with FITAP do not have a high school diploma or a GED. Very few, 2%, participate in a GED program while on FITAP.
• Compared to leavers with less schooling, leavers with a high school diploma or GED have an employment rate that is more than 8 percentage points higher and median quarterly earnings that are more than $400 higher, underscoring the importance of completing high school-level education.
• The post-exit employment rate for recipients who received a good-cause reason for work activity nonparticipation is significantly lower than for work activity participants.

• Louisiana supports a variety of programs targeting needy families outside of its traditional target group that are collectively known as TANF Initiatives. TANF Initiatives may actually help prevent new accessions to cash assistance by supporting families before they need to apply for FITAP and by increasing the human capital of parents whose children are potential future recipients of FITAP.
• TANF Initiatives encompass over 30 programs administered by 12 different agencies.
• TANF Initiatives generally showed progress in expanding existing programs or starting new programs targeted at the TANF-Initiatives-eligible population. Administrators of existing programs also appreciated that TANF Initiatives funds stabilized their programs’ financial situations.
• During the first months of implementation in 2002, state agencies and program staff we interviewed reported spending considerable time clarifying reimbursement logistics, communication protocols, reporting and eligibility requirements, and other state-level administrative issues.
• Most TANF Initiatives experienced some delay in program implementation.
• DOA staff have taken the lead in streamlining the administrative and monitoring processes for the TANF Initiatives, and DSS has also modified its internal procedure to processing TANF Initiatives reimbursements.
• One area in which DOA as overseeing agency continues to work with TANF Initiatives program administrators is in the reporting requirements for performance indicators.

• During the initial years of FITAP and FIND WORK, the state accumulated a large surplus of unspent federal TANF block grant funds. Consequently, the State decided to greatly expand the scope of TANF-funded assistance to serve needy families beyond the traditional welfare-eligible population.
• Since implementation in 1997, the FITAP caseload has declined by over 60%.
• Almost all adult FITAP recipients are single mothers, and over 70 percent are less than 30 years old.
• About half of the caseload has a HS diploma or GED.
• There is little evidence that the caseload is becoming increasingly comprised of hard to serve recipients.
• Long-term recipients have less education and limited work experience than other recipients.
• The majority of adults in the FIND Work program participating in work activities are engaged in paid employment (52 percent); smaller numbers of adults participate in vocational education (20 percent) and work experience programs (17 percent).
• About one-third of recent adult-headed case closures resulted from sanctions for noncompliance with various program requirements.
• Failure to meet work participation requirements is the most common reason for sanctioning FITAP cases in Louisiana. The second most frequent reason for sanctioning is failure to comply with requirements related to child support enforcement.
• Post-FITAP employment rates immediately after exit ranged from 45 to 52 percent and did not shown any notable improvement since the program was implemented in 1997.
• Only a small fraction of FITAP leavers were continuously employed over the year after their exit from the program.
• Most former recipients were employed in service and retail trade industries, which have numerous low-skill low-wage jobs.
• Not surprisingly, the earnings of most employed former FITAP recipients were not high enough to lift their families out of poverty.
• Median quarterly earnings among former recipients were about $1,600 in 2001 in the quarter after exit.
• The level of earnings, however, increased for FITAP leavers who were able to retain employment over the long run.
• Neither the state’s 24-month time limit nor the state’s 60-month time limit was a major concern for the adult recipients who had been on FITAP. A range of exemptions was made for those reaching, allowing most families to remain on cash assistance even after reaching their time limit.

• The service model for the STEP program is very different from that of FIND work, in ways that might be expected to affect the substance abuse screening and referral of FITAP applicants in both the TANF Initiatives pilot sites and the non-pilot sites. Procedures for substance abuse screening and referral were largely unaffected by the implementation of STEP.
• Preliminary analysis indicates that 8.9 percent of the FITAP applicants who were screened for substance abuse at the TANF Initiatives pilot sites using the ASI-MV assessment tool were identified as having a possible substance abuse problem requiring further assessment and treatment.
• With regard to identifying a need for substance abuse treatment, it appears that the application and case certification procedures for STEP present slightly less of a barrier to FITAP applicants than did the procedures for FIND Work.
• The implementation of the Job Readiness Program has effectively eliminated the problem of no-shows at the OAD pilot sites, because the STEP requirement that FITAP applicants participate in job readiness activities tends to facilitate the applicant’s meeting with the OAD Program Assistant.
• At all seven of the TANF Initiatives residential facilities for women and children, family self-sufficiency activities are thoroughly integrated into the substance abuse treatment program.
• Clients at the residential treatment programs are strongly encouraged to become employed as well as to advance in their education during their treatment stay.
• The TANF-funded residential treatment facilities have strong connections with DSS and FITAP.
• As of March 2004, 4,005 individuals had received OAD substance abuse treatment services under one of the three TANF Initiatives programs.
• Employment rates improve slightly for most individuals after completion of OAD treatment services.
• Wages improve after the completion of OAD treatment services.

• Wages for employed program participants begin to rise upon enrollment and continue to increase each quarter thereafter.
• Participants’ wages more than double two years after program enrollment. Tuition students receive higher average earnings than Upgrade students do, but earnings for both groups grow at comparable rates in the first year after program entry.
• Fifty-eight percent of program participants are employed in their first quarter after enrollment, exceeding the program target of 55 percent.
• Sixty-seven percent of participants are employed in at least two of the four quarters after enrolling in the program, and 35 percent of participants are employed in all four quarters after enrollment.
• Students earning a degree or a certificate show substantially higher post-program earnings. Degree-earning participants have quarterly earnings about $700 higher than their non-degreed counterparts. The disparity is even greater among Tuition students, with degree-earning students earning $1,500 more per quarter than non-degree earning participants per quarter. Only 14 percent of participants complete a degree or certificate.
• Only 30 percent of program participants meet the workplace literacy goals they establish, indicating that most students leave workplace literacy with unmet work-related literacy needs.

• The Pre-Release program exceeded, as of June 2004, its annual participation target of 900 inmates and served more inmates than it did at the same time last year, despite having lost one third of its funding.
• The majority of individuals who exited the Pre-Release program received training in: workplace literacy, work readiness, life and technical skills training. Over half received training in basic skills.
• One quarter of program participants who were released from prison obtained employment in the quarter they were released.
• Individuals who obtained employment had average earnings of $2,617 for the quarter in which they were released.
• The recidivism rate of Pre-Release program participants released in 2003 was eight percentage points lower than the recidivism rate of the total prison population.
• Analysis of workplace literacy data suggests that program participants experienced gains in their workplace literacy skills.
• Preliminary analysis suggests that for the most part, the Pre-Release program either met or exceeded its performance targets.

• Despite the delayed launch of contracts, the Year 3 Post-Release Skills Program has made steady progress toward participation targets in terms of the number of individuals served. The total unduplicated number of individuals served reached 777 at the end of July, compared to the year-end target of 900, with three months remaining in the contract.
• Providers are given considerable flexibility in designing the details of their programs within the general scope of work.
• Employment among participants improved during the course of their program participation.

• During the third quarter of FFY 2004, there was an average of 2,631 active participants in drug courts statewide, which represents a 10 percent increase in the average number of participants compared to the last quarter of FFY 2003. During the first three quarters of FFY 2004, 626 individuals graduated from the Drug Court Program.
• According to the program survey of drug court coordinators, the statewide program standards introduced in 2003 are embraced by most local courts as a helpful tool and are viewed by them as having positive implications for program implementation.
• Even within the framework of the statewide program standards, local courts have much flexibility in determining details of program design, including the length and amount of substance abuse treatment, drug-testing policies, amount of interaction with the judge, and provision of supportive services and aftercare services, among other things. As a result, there is considerable variation in program design across courts.
• Local courts are still in the process of transitioning to the Drug Court Case Management System—a new web-based case management information system that combines case management tools and data maintenance functions.
• Employment indicators among program graduates improved over the course of their program enrollment. The rate of employment among participants, estimated using the Unemployment Insurance wage records, increased from 45 percent in the entry quarter to 56 percent in the exit quarter.
• The employment rate did not seem to improve any further after participants graduated from the program.

• Iowa test scores for After School for All (ASFA) students in some subjects increased by up to two (normal curve equivalent) points after program participation.
• The 2004 LEAP 21 scores for ASFA students were generally low: in 2004, on average (between the four test subjects) 26 percent of fourth grade ASFA students scored “Unsatisfactory” on the tests, while on average 33 percent of eighth grade ASFA students scored “Unsatisfactory”.
• 2004 LEAP 21 scores for ASFA students lagged the scores for non-ASFA students.
• Results of a teacher survey at thirteen sites suggest that about half of teachers of students in the ASFA program found that the program improved academic performance for most or all students.
• Teacher survey results and provider interviews suggest that the school day program and the ASFA program were well integrated academically at most schools, in part because day teachers were included among after school staff.
• Communication between after school staff and students’ day school teachers could be strengthened to better focus academic interventions to address students’ individual needs.

• A total of thirty-six different contractors received TANF Initiatives funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) programs in FY 20041
• As of August 2004, 16,000 participants had enrolled in TPP programs over the course of the contract year. Not all of these participants remained in the programs for a substantial number of classes.
• Eighty-five percent of contractors reported that all or most program participants are eligible for free or reduced lunch through the National School Lunch Program that requires that family income be below 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
• Contractor survey respondents indicated that many TPP program participants are involved in risk behaviors associated with teen sexual activity, childbearing, and STD infection.
• Only 15 percent of contractors reported not needing any outreach or recruiting in order to meet participation targets.
• The DOE-administered TPP program offers increased support for contractors who include curriculum-based and best practice trainings, announced and unannounced monitoring visits, and ongoing technical assistance.
• In order to assure that contractors had the capacity to implement the mandated TPP curricula effectively, DOE offered on-site curriculum coaching.
• All contractors reported utilizing at least one of the DOE-mandated, research-based TPP curricula.
• Many of the DOE-mandated curricula are mentioned in the literature as having positive effects on reducing teen pregnancy and its associated risk factors. Most contractors use more than one curriculum.
• The TPP RFP indicated that all staff interacting with participants in curricula components must be able to document attendance at DOE trainings.
• All contractors visited by BPA researchers reported implementing the required Personal Social Skills (PSS) curriculum and at least one of the DOE-approved research-based teen pregnancy prevention curricula.
• All contractor survey respondents reported receiving best practices training and 61 percent reported that this training was more effective than in previous years.
• Despite DOE’s attempts to increase providers’ capacity to adopt best practices, there appeared to be significant variation in knowledge of and ability to implement best practices.
• Many TPP contractors mentioned the need for additional technical assistance and direction in implementing their curricula.
• Many contractors reported a need for training on topics other than curriculum.
• Although contractors indicated a need for technical assistance in many areas, the overriding message was that the TPP Program has improved significantly under DOE administration.
• According to DOE respondents, the primary performance measures utilized to assess contractor progress are the 80 percent participation rate and the 50 percent retention rate benchmarks, which were monitored using data entered into ASSIST, DOE’s online database. Many contractors, however, expressed confusion about the DOE participation and retention rate performance measures.
• The contract officer monitoring process primarily served as a way for DOE to make sure that contractors were utilizing required curricula on the day of the monitoring visit, rather than as a way to provide assistance and monitoring of curriculum implementation.
• Findings from participant surveys in CBOs show that about a quarter of all participants are already sexually active when they enter the TPP programs. Boys are more likely to be sexually active than girls.
• Most (75 percent) participants are middle school students and about a quarter of participants are in high school.
• Analyses comparing knowledge, behavior, and attitudes for program participants at two points in time do not find significant program effects on participants’ sexual activity and use of contraceptives.
• Pre-post differences in participant knowledge and attitudes might have been larger if more teens had participated in the programs for significant amounts of time and if there had been more time between pre- and post assessments.

• The Dept. of Social Services should improve the assessment process for FIND Work participants. The Dept should explore the feasibility of developing contracts with Louisiana Community and Technical College system to streamline the system of referring FIND Work participants.
• The Department of Social Services should expand FIND Work recipients’ access to assessment and counseling for mental health issues, learning disabilities, and other disabilities. These services may be provided by other state agencies and contracted community-based service providers.
• The Dept of Social Services should expand countable job search and readiness classes to all parishes and encourage most FIND Work participants to take the classes.
• The Department of Social Services should develop a work activity component that combines 10 hours per week (or up to 35 percent of scheduled hours) of basic education, workplace literacy training, or other job-related training with a 20-hours-per week work experience component.
• The Department should develop partnerships with the Workforce commission and the Louisiana Community and Technical College system to implement and education/work experience component at local campuses participating in the Adult Education and Workplace literacy Training TANF Initiative.
• The Department of Social Services should continue to provide transitional transportation assistance to FIND Work participants who exit for employment.
• The Department of Social Services should begin development of an after-care program for recipients who leave the program for employment, with the aim of improving job retention and reducing recidivism.
• The Department of Social Services should review the process for ensuring that FITAP recipients comply with child support enforcement. SES and OFS staff should jointly analyze the reasons and circumstances that cause these cases to close.
• The State of Louisiana should review whether the school attendance requirement for children of FITAP families is warranted, and consider dropping this requirement for FITAP participation.
• The State of Louisiana should review whether the immunization requirement for children of FITAP families is warranted, and consider dropping these requirements as FITAP participation.
• The Department of Social Services should study the feasibility of implementing a sanction response team, using either DSS staff, local service providers, or some combination of the two.
• The Department of Social Services should identify alternative activities in addition to, or in place of, the monthly 20-job contact requirement for recipients who seek an exemption to the 24-month time limit.
• The Department of Human Services should review its current strategies for identifying and assessing families reaching the federal 60-month lifetime limit for receipt of cash assistance.
• The Department of Social Services should review the current schedule of contacting clients nearing the time limits in order to allow more time for recipients to address any barriers they face.
• The State of Louisiana should review the goals and merits of the 24-month time limit— relative to the 60-month lifetime limit on cash assistance—and consider eliminating or significantly modifying the 24-month time limit.

• DOA may want to require all programs to submit basic counts of services provided. In most cases, this will be the number of participants who were enrolled in a program or received service in a certain period. If there are multiple program components, the program should be required to report the number of participants in each program component as well as a total number participants served.
• If indicators are reported in percentage terms (e.g., a program completion rate), DOA should also ask for the counts used to compute such percentages. Our review of performance indicators in percentage terms indicated that many of them were hard to verify and interpret.
• Some implementing agencies at the local level may not have the experience or capacity to track required indicators. DOA should work with each state agency to ensure that local sites understand the requirement and are able to consistently record required indicators. This may require providing technical assistance to local staff or simplifying indicators.