A report offering a detailed look at the results of the sweeping welfare overhaul of 1996 has been released by researchers at Teachers College, University of California Berkeley and Yale University. The reports says that most mothers faced with the new welfare rules have found jobs, but the mostly low-paid positions have not translated into improvements in the lives of their children. Parenting skills have not improved and there is still difficulty in meeting financial needs, the report states.

"It's not really clear that simply moving women into jobs, especially part-time, low-wage jobs, will advance their children's preparation for school," said Sharon Lynn Kagan of [Teachers College] at Columbia University, a co-director of the study, which followed more than 700 families in California, Connecticut and Florida.

The report is available online at http://www.tc.edu/new-lives.

The article, entitled "Study Says Welfare Switch Slighted Young" appeared in the 4/16/02 edition of the New York Times.

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Published Wednesday, Jun. 26, 2002