View Research by Author - Shelley Waters Boots

Publications

This report summarizes strategies San Francisco employers used to implement the nation's first law requiring paid sick days for all employees, based on interviews with a sample of businesses. Although employers faced three new policies that affected staff wages and benefits, they were able to implement the paid sick leave requirement with minimal impacts to their business. The report details employer responses to the law in their operations, staffing, employee benefit packages, and reporting requirements. By assessing employers' perspectives on the operational challenges of the law, the study provides lessons to inform future research and policymaking.

The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage for the U.S. population on August 26, 2008. According to the report, median household income increased by 1.3 percent in 2007, while the overall poverty rate dipped slightly and the number and percentage of people without health insurance decreased. While the overall numbers were positive, not everyone shared in the economic gains. The number and percentage of children in poverty increased, and households in the lowest 40 percent of the income distribution had no significant income gains.

Parents in low-wage jobs lack both the time and resources needed to fill their dual roles of worker and parent. In this essay, the authors outline a "family security" approach that would help parents fulfill their roles effectively. They suggest policies for enabling parents to improve prospects for their children and combine work with child rearing. Among the recommendations are flexible and paid leave policies for working parents, guaranteed child care, and expansion of the Early Head program.

Parents in low-wage jobs lack both the time and resources needed to fill their dual roles of worker and parent. In this summary, the authors outline a “family security” approach that would help parents fulfill their roles effectively. They suggest policies for enabling parents to improve prospects for their children and combine work with child rearing. Among the recommendations are flexible and paid leave policies for working parents, guaranteed child care, and expansion of the Early Head program.

In this brief will examine the insurance status of low-income parents nationally and by state. We then describe the extent to which low-income parents have children who are enrolled in Medicaid and the potential to cover them under Medicaid through section 1931 provisions.

This supplement to the main report The Cost of Protecting Vulnerable Children: Understanding Federal, State, and Local Child Welfare Spending (Occasional Paper 20) provides state-by-state data on spending for child welfare services in state fiscal year 1996. Charts detail sources of funding for child welfare services and spending by type of service, type of out-of-home placement, and type of child welfare expenditure.

Data from the Urban Institute's 50-state survey of child welfare expenditures provides new insight into how states differ in their strategies for financing child welfare. Among the conclusions: total child welfare spending is greater than previously estimated; non-traditional federal funding streams are more important than previously assumed; financing child welfare varies significantly by state; the cost of residential and group care placements is overwhelming; and there is little funding for prevention.

When the demand for child care assistance exceeds the available federal and state child care funds, the group most likely to be left without assistance is low-income working families with no connection to the welfare system. Despite a $600 million increase in federal funds for child care, there is only enough money to serve half of the low-income families needing child care assistance. This paper also examines who receives child care assistance and who pays for it.

There are two Highlights for each state. The income support and social services Highlights look at basic income support programs, employment and training programs, child care, child support enforcement, and the last-resort safety net. The Highlights capture policies in place and planned in 1996 and early 1997.

The state reports describe the safety net and health care programs in place for low-income people on the eve of welfare reform. The reports also analyze the particular circumstances that are shaping the state's response to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The state reports are based on case studies in the respective state.

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