The Office of Family Assistance developed and provided these reporting instructions, designed to help Tribal TANF programs accurately complete required financial reporting. While financial reporting guidance can often feel overwhelming, these instructions break down what information needs to be reported and how Tribal TANF programs can stay aligned with federal requirements.

For Tribal TANF administrators and financial staff, the instructions help reduce confusion around reporting expectations and support stronger program management. Accurate reporting is essential for demonstrating how TANF funds are being used to support families and communities. Tribal TANF programs can use this resource to strengthen internal processes, train staff, and improve consistency across reporting activities. It also serves as a helpful reference for newer staff members who may be unfamiliar with Tribal TANF financial reporting requirements.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced $6 million in funding for states to pilot the use of predictive analytics in child welfare programs. The initiative is intended to help child welfare agencies explore how data and technology can support earlier identification of family needs, improve service coordination, and strengthen decision-making processes. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this announcement highlights the growing role data tools may play in supporting families across human services systems. TANF programs may find this resource useful as they consider how data-sharing partnerships, early intervention strategies, and cross-system collaboration can help better identify family needs and connect participants to supportive services before challenges escalate.

This Office of Family Assistance Information Memorandum (IM) highlights how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds can be used to support families with childcare needs, including parents and caregivers who provide care at home. It offers flexible ways for TANF programs to support family stability while recognizing the realities many caregivers face when balancing work, caregiving responsibilities, and economic hardship.

The IM can help TANF practitioners think more broadly about how childcare supports fit into employment and family well-being goals. It also offers useful guidance for program planning, policy discussions, and partnerships with childcare providers and community organizations. TANF programs looking to strengthen support for caregivers, reduce barriers to participation, or expand family-centered approaches may consider how they can apply this information in their own communities.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) non-assistance funds flow through workforce boards, employment program providers, and community partners—but data about service delivery often lives in separate systems. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified this as a core program integrity challenge: without cross-agency data infrastructure, TANF agencies struggle to assess provider performance, identify service gaps, and connect spending to participant outcomes.

As a result, the Office of Family Assistance’s State and Tribal Technical Assistance and Resources (STAR) team developed the TANF Program Integrity Office Hours as a series of topical peer learning sessions where TANF agencies can share what's working, explore real challenges, and walk away with practical strategies they can use to address the challenge identified by GAO.

This recording includes key takeaways from the May session, highlights from peer discussions, and an overview of how to use and navigate the companion resource, which can help TANF programs identify where to begin when building or strengthening cross-agency data partnerships to support program integrity efforts.

GovLoop developed this webinar and companion product to examine how agencies can simplify and modernize forms and document processes to improve the customer experience. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, complicated paperwork and outdated systems can create barriers for both families and staff. Both resources outline practical ways agencies can reduce administrative burden, improve accessibility, and make it easier for clients to complete applications and submit information. TANF practitioners and program leaders can use these ideas to support more efficient service delivery, reduce delays, and create processes that are easier for families to navigate.

This MDRC report explores how two workforce programs in Los Angeles adapted employment services to better meet the needs of young people. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners serving youth and young parents, this resource offers insight into why flexible, individualized approaches matter. The resource highlights strategies such as personalized coaching, relationship-building, and responsive support services that help young people stay engaged and move toward employment goals. Programs looking to improve participation, reduce barriers, and better connect with younger clients may find useful ideas for strengthening their own service delivery models.

The Ohio Kinship and Adoption Navigator (OhioKAN) Program Manual offers a practical example of how coordinated family support services can be organized to better meet the needs of children and caregivers. Developed by Ohio’s Department of Children and Youth, the manual gives Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners a useful look at how programs can streamline referrals, improve communication across partners, and connect families to services more efficiently. For TANF agencies working to strengthen case management or build stronger community partnerships to support children and caregivers, this resource provides real-world guidance on creating systems that are easier for families to navigate and easier for staff to coordinate.

Work requirements are a central part of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), but the way they are defined and measured can be difficult to translate into everyday program decisions. This report breaks down how the federal work participation standard works in practice and how states meet it, helping TANF staff connect policy rules to real program operations.

A key detail is that child recipients are not considered work-eligible, meaning families where only children receive TANF assistance—or child-only cases—are excluded from work participation rate calculations. These cases can include situations where grandparents or other relatives are caring for children and receiving assistance on their behalf. Because of this distinction, programs are not evaluated on their engagement of these families in the same way as adult-recipient cases, which can significantly affect reported participation rates.

For TANF practitioners, this resource clarifies where compliance requirements apply and where they do not. It can help TANF programs design work activities that meet federal expectations while still reflecting the realities of the families being served. It can also support more informed program design decisions that balance accountability metrics with meaningful employment and family support strategies.

This Chapin Hall brief helps unpack how families actually move through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) over time, going beyond simple caseload counts to show how long families stay connected to support. One of the key insights is that child-only cases now make up about the same share of the caseload as adult recipient cases, shifting how programs need to think about engagement and service design. It also shows that child-only cases are 44% less likely to exit TANF at any point than adult-recipient cases, pointing to a group that may experience longer or more stable reliance on assistance.

For TANF practitioners, this brief highlights where systems may be working as intended—and where families may be getting “stuck” without clear pathways forward. Child-only cases often involve caregivers like relatives raising children without receiving benefits themselves, which can change how support needs to be structured. Practitioners can use these insights to rethink outreach, adjust case management strategies, and design supports that better match the different experiences within the caseload, rather than treating all cases the same.

This Urban Institute brief focuses on “child-only” cases—situations where children receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits without a parent in the assistance unit, often because they are living with relatives or other caregivers. These cases make up a significant share of TANF caseloads and are often treated the same as traditional households, despite having very different needs. The brief helps TANF practitioners better understand who these families are and where current supports may fall short. It points to gaps in services for both children and their caregivers and offers insight into how programs can more effectively identify and respond to these cases. For TANF staff, this means being better equipped to tailor services, strengthen caregiver support, and ensure children in nontraditional living arrangements are not overlooked.