Wisconsin is recognized as one of the leaders in state-level welfare reform efforts. The state has received a great deal of attention from policymakers and the media for its efforts to create a work-based system of assistance for low-income families and the significant caseload declines brought about by its reforms. The reforms reflect a philosophy that families, not government, are responsible for providing for their needs. Income support, employment and training, child care, and even aspects of child welfare services were modified to promote independence and self-sufficiency. Wisconsin changed the administrative structures of these programs, including increasing the involvement of private agencies. And more than other states, Wisconsin ended the entitlement to cash assistance by establishing a system of diversion to connect clients to other sources of support and by linking receipt of cash benefits to an applicant's degree of job readiness as well as income eligibility.

Many of the features of Wisconsin Works (W-2), Wisconsin's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, build on the state's extensive experimentation through the federal waiver process. The Self-Sufficiency First demonstration, which operated on a statewide basis beginning in 1996, served as a phase-in to W-2; it required applicants to search for work and consider alternatives to public assistance such as services provided by community organizations or assistance from friends or family. The companion program to the Self-Sufficiency First demonstration, Pay for Performance, increased the number of welfare recipients required to participate in the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program (JOBS ) and instituted stricter sanctions. The Work Not Welfare waiver, implemented in two counties, required recipients to engage immediately in job search or work activities. As these waivers were being tested, state administrators were crafting W-2 as a way to carry out legislation, passed in 1993, that intended to end welfare in Wisconsin by 1999. With the passage of federal welfare reforms, Wisconsin was able to put W-2 in place. The state was one of the first to receive approval of its state welfare plan from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This report describes Wisconsin's approach to welfare reform from the perspectives of state and local administrators, direct service providers, and in some cases, the families themselves. To place these policy changes in context, the brief opens with a description of the state's population and economy, political landscape, and social safety net. It then looks at three program areas affected by welfare reform: W-2 and related efforts, child care programs for low-income families, and the child welfare services for children who have been abused and neglected. A brief discussion about how Wisconsin compares to other states in terms of its welfare reform policies, their implementation, and their effect on the lives of low-income citizens concludes the presentation.

Data for this report were collected in 1999 and early 2000 in each of the three program areas. The team of researchers studying welfare and work programs conducted interviews with administrators, program directors, and W-2 caseworkers in Milwaukee County in June 2000. The child care researchers also visited Milwaukee County in November 1999. They interviewed state and local child care administrators and other informants, and conducted focus groups with parents, child care providers, and child care caseworkers. Child welfare researchers interviewed state child welfare and W-2 administrators, state-level policy analysts, and local child welfare and W-2 administrators in Racine and Milwaukee Counties, and conducted focus groups with child welfare caseworkers in Racine County in October 1999. Telephone interviews were conducted with child welfare administrators in 12 other counties.1 This brief focuses on data collected in 1999 and 2000, but considers aspects of policy and service delivery that have changed since 1997.