The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) recently published two important documents related to the implementation of the Temporary Assistance Needy Families (TANF) provisions in the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023.

The first, published on July 18, 2024, is updated guidance and application submission information for the TANF pilots. As noted by the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in his letter, ACF welcomes all state and territory TANF agencies to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to innovate by submitting a proposal by the deadline of September 3, 2024.

The second, published on July 19, 2024, is a Program Instruction and technical resource guide designed to support state and territory agencies in successfully understanding, preparing, and submitting the new reporting of work outcomes, as required by Section 304 of the FRA and described in the Interim Final Rule on TANF Work Outcomes Measures.

On July 24, 2024, OFA hosted a webinar to review the new measures and provided technical guidance for preparing and submitting the new reports for the measures. The materials and recording are now available to review.

All updates can be found on OFA’s FRA Implementation site.

Section 304 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 requires all states to report the data necessary to produce outcome measures for work-eligible individuals who leave Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The interim final rule on TANF Work Outcomes Measures was published on June 28, 2024. The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar on July 24, 2024, where OFA presenters reviewed the new measures and provided technical guidance for preparing and submitting three new reports for the measures: Work Outcomes of TANF Exiters Report (quarterly), the required Secondary School Diploma or its Recognized Equivalent Attainment Rate (annually), and the Supplemental Work Outcomes Report (annually).

The authors behind Project IMPROVE’s recently published brief, Business Process Management: How to Make Time for What Really Matters, will be hosting a series of web-based events that will allow participants to learn more about how to implement business process management in their human services organizations to improve staff and participant experiences.

• 25-Minute Information Session, February 29th from 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET: Authors provided an overview on how to implement business process management strategies such as streamlining paperwork and operations, refining program processes, leveraging technology, and more! Review the recording of this session.
• 60-minute “Open” Office Hours, March 13th from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET: For those curious about how to get started with business process management in their human service organization were able join a group discussion with the authors and ask questions.
• Individualized Office Hours, April 2nd from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET: The brief authors offered individualized advice on how to implement business process management in a human service organization.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) financial data tables, national and state pie charts.

• In FY 2022, combined federal TANF and state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) expenditures and transfers totaled $31.3 billion. Across the United States in FY 2022:
  •  23.0 percent of TANF and MOE funds was used for basic assistance,
  • 8.1 percent was used for work, education, and training activities; and
  • 15.5 percent was used for child care (including funds transferred to the Child Care Development Fund).
• 30 states used less than half of their TANF and MOE funds on the combination of basic assistance; work, education, and training activities; and child care.
  • 34 states spent less than 20 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on basic assistance.
  • 42 states and the District of Columbia spent less than 15 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on work, education, and training activities.
• From FY 2021 to FY 2022, the amount of funds used for basic assistance increased by $366 million and child care decreased by $58 million. The amount of funds used for work, education, and training activities increased by $211 million.

View the financial data tables, national and state pie charts for more information on how TANF and MOE funds were used in FY 2022. 

State pie charts will be published in the coming weeks.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar on January 31, 2024 to follow up the webinar on November 15, 2023 that introduced the latest revisions to instructions for TANF data report (Forms ACF-199 and ACF-209). During the webinar, OFA walked through a crosswalk that details all the changes to the instructions and their coding implications. OFA also discussed implications for states and territories that use a legacy data preparation tool (i.e., FTANF.exe). The recording of the webinar is now available; along with the PowerPoint used during this presentation.

This issue brief describes three specific program improvement strategies employed by six state, county and tribal TANF programs. The three strategies drove changes that resulted in tangible TANF program improvements across all six programs. The improvement strategies are:

1) Revisit and reimagine your working relationships with your community partners to improve collaboration and coordination;
2) actively listen to and learn from your TANF families, community members, and program staff; and
3) reorient or adapt outcome structures and monitoring elements to strengthen TANF program performance-based accountability.

The programs featured in this resource were among a group of 10 TANF programs that participated in the Office of Family Assistance’s initiative “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” {LASER TLC).

Project IMPROVE helps Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and related programs learn to use and produce evidence to improve their programs. This one-pager, developed by Mathematica and The Adjacent Possible, shares information about Project IMPROVE and how state and local TANF agencies can get involved.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2023 forced TANF programs to rethink service delivery. Programs were forced to find new ways to implement policies and innovate through the use of technology. In response, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) launched the Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience (LASER) TANF Learning Community (TLC). LASER TLC builds on the immediate adaptations to the pandemic. It helps programs design and implement sustainable strategies for the post-pandemic world.

Four of the ten program teams, highlighted here, focused their efforts on modernization projects. These four TANF program teams are: the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Tribal TANF program; the North Carolina Work First Program; the Kentucky Works Program; and the North Dakota TANF Program.

This brief highlights the small and large ways of approaching TANF modernization. It further offers insight into what can be achieved through small, intentional steps guided by a bold vision for innovation.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) wants to inform you of an exciting opportunity to provide input and feedback for consideration into the design and implementation of the pilot programs and work outcomes measures for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, enacted as sections 302 and 304 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. 

OFA has issued a Request for Information, and we want to hear your voice. Your individual input will help ACF better understand options, opportunities and potential challenges in building and carrying out the pilot program and the reporting of new statutory work outcomes measures applicable to all states. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of ACF or HHS. 

We look forward to incorporating your meaningful input and recommendations by the comment deadline of January 11, 2024. As ACF continues to gather input, questions, and comments from all interested parties, we will also continue to alert you to new resources, guidance, and updates as we post them to our FRA Implementation page.