The American Rescue Plan temporarily increased the child tax credit (CTC) in 2021, including extending the credit to families who had not previously filed tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service automatically sent monthly payments of the CTC to families that had filed a tax return in 2019 or 2020. This report reviews the work of the Birth through Eight Strategy for Tulsa, an initiative to find low-income families who were likely to miss out on receiving the CTC. It also identifies how Tulsa’s existing network of service navigators worked to connect families eligible for the credit with tax preparation services to claim the CTC.

These briefs are blueprint fact sheets showcasing the accomplishments of peers and stakeholders in implementing a whole family approach at seven Community Action Agencies: Aroostook County Action Program (Presque Isle, Maine), Blueprints (Washington, Pennsylvania), Community Action, Inc. (Topeka, Kansas), Community Action Project of Tulsa County (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County (Santa Rosa, California), Mahube-Otwa Community Action Partnership (Detroit Lakes, Minnesota), and People, Inc. (Abingdon, Virginia). Each brief details the agency, its area demographics, its whole family approach with a highlight of the program’s innovation story, successes, a profile of a program participant, challenges, wisdom (lessons learned), the program’s building block focus, and a timeline for implementation.

Home visiting programs have been shown to support healthy child development, increase family economic independence and positive parenting practices, and decrease child maltreatment. This research-to-practice brief examines the evidence of impact of the SafeCare® model, a home visiting program implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) and the Arkansas Department of Human Services (ADHS). The OKDHS and ADHS experiences offer insights and lessons for other jurisdictions considering SafeCare as part of the Title IV-E Prevention Plan under the Family First Prevention Services Act.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this concurrent workshop, panelists explored how Tribal TANF and NEW programs can consider expanding virtual services to motivate participants to pursue opportunities, especially those which may have been previously inaccessible. Speakers discussed a variety of strategies used in the past year to create virtual education and training opportunities and virtual case management services for clients, as well as how these offerings were developed, challenges along the way, witnessed successes, and recommendations for programs considering offering similar resources. This session concluded with a review of OFA’s Coaching for Success eLearning modules, which program staff can use to provide virtual coaching and mentorship to participants.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has adopted an innovative approach to preparing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants for employment: fully integrating relationship skills education into its work readiness program. By transforming its TANF orientation process to focus on soft skills development and navigating workplace relationships, the agency’s integrated approach is laying a foundation for helping TANF participants obtain and sustain employment.

This brief is part of the Emerging Practice Series of the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative, which highlights the strategies of TANF agencies and their partners to help low-income individuals gain and sustain meaningful employment. Each brief describes an emerging practice that has been implemented in one site, an overview of the program model, and the results that have been achieved. Compelling stories of participants’ success and suggestions from TANF agency staff to their peers provide actionable insights and on-the-ground perspectives.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services’ Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) works to connect government resources and programs with faith-based and community entities. This webpage serves faith-based and community organizations throughout Oklahoma to give professionals a one-stop-shop for connecting with five state agencies to better navigate state programs.

Currently, almost 5 million (or about one-third of) children younger than age 6 living in families with working parents have parents who work before 7:00 a.m. or after 6:00 p.m. on weekdays or on weekends. Further, children of color, children in families with low incomes, and children in single-parent families are disproportionately likely to have parents working these hours. However, very little is known about what child care arrangements these parents want during nontraditional hours or about the policy constraints and opportunities that may affect their ability to access the care they want.

This report presents findings from a mixed methods study of parents in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Oklahoma that explores the following questions:

• What do we know about the potential demand for child care during nontraditional hours?
• What child care arrangements do parents of young children recommend and use for nontraditional hours?
• What role do children’s needs play in shaping parents’ recommendations for nontraditional hour child care?
• What other constraints and issues do parents report concerning nontraditional-hour child care?
• What are the implications of the answers to these questions for policy and practice?

Placement with kin is not always possible for endangered children who need to be removed from their homes, so child protection agencies utilize resource families. This research-to-practice brief highlights different approaches used to recruit and retain resource families. The brief covers three jurisdictions that have a high rate of family-based placements and a low rate of congregate care setting placements for children in need of protection: the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, and the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families.

This research to practice brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation describes examination of findings from nine rural programs that serve child welfare-involved parents with substance use disorders. The examination was unable to provide information on program effectiveness but does focus on the range of services offered, the targeted population, how funding is blended, and collaborative approaches of these programs. Programs covered in this brief are: Children and Recovering Mothers (CHARM) Care Collaborative (Burlington, Vermont); Iowa Department of Human Services Parent Partner Mentoring Program; Kentucky Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START); Vermont Hub and Spoke Model; Women in Recovery (Tulsa, Oklahoma); The Arizona Families in Recovery Succeeding Together (FIRST) Program; Helen Ross McNabb Center (HRMC) Great Starts Program and Motivating our Mothers to Succeed Silver Linings and Rise to Recovery Models (Knoxville, Tennessee); and Parent-Child Assistance Program (Washington State).