Department of Health and Human Services 

OFFICE OF 

INSPECTOR GENERAL 

JUNE GIBBS BROWN 

Inspector General 

OCTOBER 1999 

OEI-05-98-00540 

HEAD START, TANF, AND CHILD CARE 

NEEDS ASSESSMENTS 
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL 

The mission of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), as mandated by Public Law 95-452, is to 

protect the integrity of the Department of Health and Human Services programs as well as the 

health and welfare of beneficiaries served by them. This statutory mission is carried out through a 

nationwide program of audits, investigations, inspections, sanctions, and fraud alerts. The 

Inspector General informs the Secretary of program and management problems and recommends 

legislative, regulatory, and operational approaches to correct them. 

Office of Evaluation and Inspections 

The Office of Evaluation and Inspections (OEI) is one of several components of the Office of 

Inspector General. It conducts short-term management and program evaluations (called 

inspections) that focus on issues of concern to the Department, the Congress, and the public. The 

inspection reports provide findings and recommendations on the efficiency, vulnerability, and 

effectiveness of departmental programs. 

OEI's Chicago regional office prepared this report under the direction of William C. Moran, 

Regional Inspector General, and Natalie Coen, Deputy Regional Inspector General. Principal 

OEI staff included: 

REGION HEADQUARTERS 

Joe Penkrot, Project Leader Alan Levine, Program Specialist

Emily Melnick, Lead Analyst

Ianna Kachoris

To obtain copies of this report, please call the Chicago Regional Office at (312) 353-4124.

Reports are also available on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.dhhs.gov/progorg/oei
EXECUTIVE SUMMAR Y 

PURPOSE 

To describe efforts to assess family needs and provide support services to low-income 

families receiving Head Start, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Child 

Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies. 

BACKGROUND 

Family Needs Assessments and Support Services 

Welfare recipients and other low-income families may need help in order to enter the 

workforce and remain self-sufficient. The replacement of the Aid to Families with 

Dependent Children program with TANF block grants heightens the importance of 

providing services that will enhance the employment outcomes for welfare participants. 

Federal legislation requires that both TANF and Head Start agencies assess participants’ 

needs to help them address barriers to employment and self-sufficiency. There is no 

formal requirement that CCDF-funded child care programs or Child Care Resource and 

Referral agencies who administer subsidies assess family needs or offer support services. 

This report examines needs assessments and support services in these three programs in 

order to learn how to maximize efforts to help families reach and maintain 

self-sufficiency. It draws on interviews and reviews of case files, policies and procedures 

of Head Start grantees, TANF agencies and child care providers in six communities as 

well as with their respective State offices. We interviewed 77 parents or guardians of 

young children receiving Head Start, TANF and/or CCDF subsidized child care. 

We define support services as those which help low-income families overcome barriers to 

employment such as emergency assistance (e.g. food, housing, clothing), intervention (e.g. 

mental health, substance abuse, child abuse and domestic violence), child care, 

transportation and health care. 

FINDINGS 

Head Start uses needs assessments to help low-income families move towards 

self-sufficiency 

Families’ Needs Assessments 1 OEI-05-98-00540 
All Head Start grantees we visited conduct an individual family needs assessment to 

determine the need for support services and provide a variety of referrals and services for 

families. Nearly all Head Start families we interviewed report receiving information, 

referrals and some services from Head Start grantees. 

State and local TANF agency policies, as well as caseworker discretion, affect the 

needs assessments, referral processes and the provision of support services 

that help families reach and maintain self-sufficiency 

The TANF offices we visited focus almost exclusively on vocational needs. Most TANF 

agency policies indicate and staff respondents report that their focus is on assisting 

recipients make the transition from welfare to work. Support services to help families 

attain self-sufficiency are lacking in most cases. 

Individual child care programs do not assess family needs. Although Child Care 

Resource and Referral agencies are not required to assess family needs, some 

may make informal assessments and refer families to needed services 

Some low income families may get referral assistance for support services if they make 

their families’ needs known when they call a child care resource and referral agency 

(CCR&R) for child care information or child care subsidy. The Federal CCDF block grant 

does not require child care programs or providers to assess family needs or offer 

additional services. Additionally, States we visited do not require families using CCDF 

child care subsidies be assessed for support needs. 

The Head Start grantees, TANF agencies, Child Care Resource and Referral 

agencies and child care providers we visited do not coordinate around individual 

families’ needs assessments. However, in some sites we visited, these agencies 

will make referrals to other agencies and frequently work together on community 

issues 

Although they all serve low-income families, some of whom are the same families, none of 

the Head Start, TANF, CCR&Rs and child care providers we visited coordinate around an 

individual family’s needs. Lack of coordination around a family’s needs assessment may 

affect families’ access to resources. In some States we visited, Head Start, TANF and 

CCR&R agencies communicate on matters not directly related to individual families and 

their needs assessments. While families enrolled in the Head Start program are more likely 

to have their needs assessed, be referred and access services than the families we 

interviewed receiving TANF or CCDF benefits, we found families in these three programs 

often lack knowledge about services when they are available in their communities. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 2 OEI-05-98-00540 
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT 

Head Start, TANF and child care programs serve many of the same low-income families who are 

trying to reach or maintain self-sufficiency. Both Head Start grantees and TANF agencies are 

required by law to assess families’ needs and provide families with support services. Head Start 

grantees are also required to partner with other agencies. In order to maximize efforts to help 

families reach and maintain self-sufficiency, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) 

could: 

Explore strategies that encourage and facilitate coordination between agencies 

around needs, referrals and provision of services for families 

As economic conditions change or the pool of easier-to-serve clients diminish, agencies 

will face increased demands on their resources, both in the numbers of families needing 

services as well as the extent of their needs. Coordination between Head Start, TANF and 

child care programs, as well as with other community agencies, will become more 

important in providing needed services to families trying to attain self-sufficiency. 

The ACF could address current issues involving the coordination of families’ needs, 

referrals and provision of services and anticipate future trends that may require additional 

interagency coordination. The ACF could devise ongoing methods to assist State, local 

and community agencies with communication and coordination in providing services based 

on family needs. For example, ACF could develop technical guidance on information 

sharing, convene regional or national conferences on coordination and communication 

between agencies, and disseminate best practices of coordination. The TANF and child 

care programs may be able to use Head Start grantees as resources to help them improve 

needs identification. 

Encourage Head Start grantees, TANF offices, and child care programs to 

increase parent awareness about the resources they and other community 

agencies provide 

The ACF could encourage Head Start grantees, TANF agencies and child care programs 

to train front-line staff to act as resources to identify community services. Many parents 

do not know where to find needed services. They are unaware that Head Start, TANF 

offices and child care programs are resources that may help them identify services that 

may be available to them in their communities. 

In addition to these opportunities for improvement, there is one other area that the Office 

of Inspector General (OIG) will evaluate. Since both agency and family interviews 

indicated that in most TANF agencies we visited, needs assessments and referrals to 

support services are not regularly being offered, the OIG will examine the degree to which 

Families’ Needs Assessments 3 OEI-05-98-00540 
States are complying with the law requiring them to “make an initial assessment of the 

skills, prior work experience and employability of each [TANF] recipient”1 and “to 

conduct a program ... that... provides parents with support services to enable them to 

leave the program and become self-sufficient.”2 

AGENCY COMMENTS 

In their written comments, ACF wanted to distinguish between their legal authority to

require State compliance and their encouragement for States to move in directions viewed

as model practices. They also wanted to document certain actions they had already taken

to address some of the underlying concerns expressed in our report. The full ACF

comments are contained in the Appendix. Where appropriate, we changed the report to

reflect their comments and concerns.

We recognize that the nature of the relationship between ACF and States has significantly

changed since the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity

Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The ACF’s primary role is to ensure States’

compliance with TANF and CCDF regulations, while PRWORA gives the States

unprecedented authority to administer the programs according to their own policy choices. 

The State’s TANF programs that have emerged are in various stages of development. 

States are still experimenting with ways to meet the PRWORA goals of reducing welfare

dependency and helping participants reach and maintain 

self-sufficiency.

We agree with ACF that the nature, mission and goal of each State’s TANF program is

not centered on family assessments. We further agree with ACF that TANF does not

require States to enter into an individual responsibility plan with their clients. Our intent in

the report is not to become overly-focused on a certain kind of formal needs assessment,

but rather to meet the self-sufficiency needs of low-income parents and families served by

these three programs. In order to help clients become self-sufficient, States first have to

know what needs have to be met. In reviewing case files and discussing individual parent

and family needs, we did not find, for the most part, that needs were being appropriately

identified, either in a formal or informal way. Therefore, we have maintained our first

suggested action but deleted the word “assessment” to avoid the impression we are

encouraging TANF agencies and Child Care programs to conduct the same type of formal

assessments as Head Start grantees.

1 Public Law 104-193, Section 408(b)1 

2

Public Law 104-193, Section 402(a)(1)(A)(i) 

Families’ Needs Assessments 4 OEI-05-98-00540 
The ACF supports the concept that all child care providers have information on 

community resources to assist families with assessments. We agree that many child care 

providers are not trained to do the assessment themselves, nor that they have sufficient 

resources to hire support service staff. However, we did not find examples of child care 

programs or State agencies in the sites we visited which emphasize linking families to 

community services which can provide assessments or needed services. We believe 

further attention should be focused on ensuring that parents receiving subsidized care have 

access to information about community resources. 

The ACF stated that some collaboration among these three programs takes place. We 

support this collaboration. We emphasize that focusing local-level collaboration around 

identifying and providing for families’ needs remains an opportunity for improvement. If 

families participate in two or three of these programs, local-level coordination can ensure 

a more focused plan for individual families and improve the efficiency of resource 

utilization. 

Finally, as welfare caseloads continue to drop, States are increasingly looking for ways to 

help remaining recipients make the transition from welfare to work. Many of the 

recipients remaining on the rolls face myriad personal and family problems which may 

hinder rapid employment and long-term attachment to the labor force. Appropriate 

identification of needs can enable States to provide or refer recipients to the services 

which will help facilitate a successful transition to employment and self-sufficiency. 

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget also commented on the 

report. They conceptually agree with the report, but point out that limited funding and the 

reduced Federal role in welfare administration may hamper the coordination efforts we 

recommend. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 5 OEI-05-98-00540 
T ABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION .......................................................... 7

FINDINGS ............................................................... 12

Head Start Family Needs Assessments ........................................ 12

TANF Family Needs Assessments ........................................... 15

Child Care Programs and Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies Needs Assessments . 17

Agency Coordination ..................................................... 17

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT .................................... 21

AGENCY COMMENTS ................................................... 24

APPENDIX .............................................................. 26

ACF Comments ........................................................ 27

Families’ Needs Assessments 6 OEI-05-98-00540 
INTRODUCTION 

PURPOSE 

To describe efforts to assess family needs and provide support services to low-income 

families receiving Head Start, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Child 

Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies. 

BACKGROUND 

Federal legislation involving welfare and Head Start changed the relationship between 

Head Start and TANF and has had considerable impact on child care as well. The 

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) 

replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with TANF block grants to 

States. The PRWORA imposed work requirements and lifetime limits on TANF 

recipients. Despite large reductions in the number of welfare recipients in the last 5 years, 

there are still nearly eight million TANF recipients, approximately two-thirds of them 

children. 

The PRWORA also replaced existing child care funding for low-income families with a 

single integrated Child Care and Development Block Grant. Congress increased child care 

funding for fiscal years (FY) 1997-2002 to $20.9 billion, a $4 billion increase over the 

previous funding cycle. States use these funds to reimburse child care programs for 

serving eligible families or providing parents with child care certificates or vouchers to 

purchase child care. Program goals include: promoting parental choice, encouraging 

States to provide consumer education to parents, and helping States implement health, 

safety, licensing and registration standards. 

The Head Start program, a comprehensive child development program funded at $4.35 

billion for FY 1998, with over 1,400 grantees, serves nearly 800,000 low income children 

and their families. Revised performance standards require Head Start grantees to 

coordinate with TANF, child care programs, and other social service agencies. 

Needs Assessments and Support Services 

Welfare recipients and other low-income families may need help beyond child care in order 

to enter the workforce and remain self-sufficient. Federal legislation requires that both 

Head Start and TANF agencies assess participants’ needs to help them address barriers to 

Families’ Needs Assessments 7 OEI-05-98-00540 
employment and self-sufficiency. Child care programs are not required to assess family 

needs. 

The replacement of AFDC with TANF block grants heightens the importance of providing 

services that will enhance the employment outcomes for welfare participants. States must 

and are beginning to prepare to serve welfare recipients with tougher problems, moving 

beyond the “work first” approach to programs designed to help families access a wide 

range of services.3 In this inspection, we define support services as services which help 

families overcome barriers to employment such as emergency assistance (e.g., food, 

housing, clothing, and transportation), intervention (e.g., mental health, substance abuse, 

child abuse, and domestic violence), as well as employment services, child care, 

transportation and health care.4 

Head Start Requirements 

Head Start grantees offer parents the opportunity to develop and implement an 

individualized family partnership agreement that describes family goals, responsibilities, 

and strategies for achieving these aims. Head Start’s Performance Measures pertaining to 

the Family Partnership Agreement require that grantees work with parents to identify and 

access services and resources appropriate for each family’s interests and goals. Support 

services that should be identified and accessed include emergency assistance, intervention 

and employment services. Head Start’s follow-up with each family should ensure the 

“kind, quality and timeliness” of the services received through referrals. 

Head Start agencies are required to take an active role in community cooperation among 

agencies to improve the delivery of services to children and families. Head Start’s 

Performance Measures emphasize that providing linkages to other service sources in the 

community, particularly child care, is a critical role for Head Start grantees. Head Start 

grantees are also required to partner with other agencies, rather than provide all services 

for Head Start families. The Head Start Family Partnership Agreement, “must take into 

account and, build upon where appropriate, information obtained from the family and 

other community agencies concerning preexisting family plans.” 

3

National Governors Association, “Working Out of Poverty: Helping Welfare Recipients Stay Employed,” 

1998 and “Ancillary Services to Support Welfare to Work,” Mathmatica Policy Research, 1998. 

4

There is no accepted definition of what constitutes support services. In this report, we use the set of 

support services used in the ASPE-funded, ACF-sponsored “Ancillary Services to Support Welfare to Work,” 

distributed to all attendees of ACF’s Welfare Reform Promising Practices National Conferences.. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 8 OEI-05-98-00540 
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Requirements 

Under PRWORA, States are required to “make an initial assessment of the skills, prior 

work experience and employability of each [TANF] recipient” and refer them to support 

services as necessary5

. Each States’ TANF agency must decide if it wants to develop an 

individual responsibility plan for a particular recipient. In addition to setting forth an 

employment strategy for the recipient, the individual responsibility plan describes the 

specific services the State will provide to the family to enable the parent to acquire and 

maintain employment. Further, TANF agencies often contract with other community 

agencies to provide education, training, child care and transportation services for 

recipients. 

Child Care Requirements 

The CCDF block grant does not require child care programs or providers to assess family 

needs or offer additional services. However, the CCDF block grant does require States to 

coordinate the provision of child care services with other Federal, State, and local child 

care and early childhood development programs, particularly TANF, public health, 

employment services and public education. In recent years, many child care programs and 

Head Start programs have worked together to provide extended hour care and additional 

education and support services. 

Other community-based child care programs may offer needs assessments and referrals. 

Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCR&R) may provide assessments and 

referrals to families who receive CCDF-funded subsidies. While CCR&Rs do not provide 

direct child care services, many serve as the State-contracted voucher management 

agency. Nationally, CCR&R’s primary mission is to link parents to child care and 

promote universal access to quality child care. The CCR&Rs whose missions are defined 

by their communities, often serve a multi-dimensional role of promoting integrated 

supports to children and families. In addition, some social service agencies administer 

child care programs and may provide additional services to these families. 

SCOPE 

This report examines needs assessments and support services in these three programs in 

order to learn how to maximize efforts to help families reach and maintain 

self-sufficiency. We compared the needs assessments, referrals and provision of support 

services for families with children enrolled in Head Start programs, or who are TANF 

5 Public Law 104-193, Sections 402(a)1(i) and Sec. 408(b) 

Families’ Needs Assessments 9 OEI-05-98-00540 
recipients, or who use CCDF child care subsidies in the local communities we visited. We 

examined families’ needs related to the following areas: child care, health promotion and 

treatment, mental health, nutrition, domestic violence, intervention services, emergency 

assistance and employment services. We also examined the coordination, referrals and 

linkages among Head Start programs, TANF agencies and child care programs relating to 

these needs and services. 

We looked at families in poverty with children between 3 and 5 years old since they 

comprise 96 percent of Head Start families. We interviewed families with children in 

licensed and regulated child care settings who use CCDF funded child care certificates to 

pay for those services or fill a CCDF funded contracted slot. 

METHODOLOGY 

We made onsite visits to one community in California, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, 

North Carolina and Texas. We selected these States based on TANF caseload, Head Start 

enrollment, expert recommendation and geographic location. We selected individual sites 

based on a mix of urban, rural and suburban settings. We interviewed Head Start 

administrators and Family Service Workers and other staff at each Head Start site.6 In 

California, we visited two Head Start grantees. At each local TANF office, we spoke with 

directors, supervisory staff, and caseworkers. In New York, we visited two local TANF 

offices. At the CCR&R agencies, we interviewed a director or someone responsible for 

responding to parents’ child care needs. At the child care providers, we interviewed the 

director. In Nebraska and Texas, we also interviewed directors of other social service 

agencies that conduct family needs assessments. In each State we visited, we interviewed 

directors or representatives from the State TANF and State lead child care offices. 

6

These Head Start employees may have different job titles at different locations. For the purpose of this 

report, we will refer to them as Family Service Workers. Likewise, we will refer to TANF employees, whose job 

function is to assess families’ needs and refer families for services, as caseworkers. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 10 OEI-05-98-00540 
We examined the available family files 

to determine if needs assessments had 

been completed, what action had 

occurred and if any coordination 

between agencies took place. In 

addition, we interviewed parents who 

were randomly selected from lists 

provided by the programs whose 

children are in Head Start, and/or who 

participate in the TANF program, 

and/or receive child care subsidies for 

their children. We interviewed a total 

of 77 families. We made our site 

visits in September and October 1998. 

FAMILIES 

Head Start Only 29 

TANF Only 8 

Child Care Only 9 

Head Start and TANF 11 

Head Start and Child Care 7 

TANF and Child Care 9 

Head Start, TANF and Child Care 4 

Total Families Interviewed 77 

We did not examine any Early Head Start programs which is a separate program serving 

children ages 0-3 in full day, full year programs. We make neither national projections 

based on our case study sites nor rank individual Head Start grantees, TANF agencies or 

child care programs. Rather, our purpose was to gain an increased understanding of the 

needs assessment processes in these programs and to identify ways to improve their 

effectiveness in meeting families’ needs for support services. 

Our review was conducted in accordance with the Quality Standards for Inspections 

issued by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 11 OEI-05-98-00540 
FINDINGS 

Head Start uses needs assessments to help low-income 

families move towards self-sufficiency 

All seven Head Start grantees we visited administer an individual family needs 

assessment to determine the need for support services and provide a variety of 

referrals and services to families 

Head Start grantees use different models to meet the objective of strengthening families 

through links with community services. After reviewing Head Start grantee assessment 

instruments, agency policy and procedures, interviewing Head Start parents, Head Start 

administrative and front-line staff, and reviewing available client files, we found that needs 

assessments vary in content, length and use. Assessments range from a one-page checklist 

of services to seven pages of detailed questions and probes. Variations between grantees 

in the procedures for using needs assessments include: how and when assessments are 

completed, who determines what action should be taken, if a referral will be made or a 

service offered on site, if referrals are written and documented in case files, and if followup is made. 

Head Start grantees use information obtained from the needs assessments to identify 

services or workshops they can offer families or to provide referrals to community 

providers. In five of the seven grantees we visited, families complete the needs assessment 

on their own. The Family Service Worker (FSW) then reviews the assessment with the 

family, usually at the first home visit, and will make referrals for any needed support 

services. At the Illinois and New York Head Start grantees we visited, the FSW 

completes the assessment form with the family. At another grantee, the FSWs do not 

participate in the completion of the needs assessment, but that Head Start grantee uses the 

assessments to plan onsite workshops to meet families’ needs. 

To meet families needs, Head Start grantees make referrals to outside service 

providers and provide on-site services 

Head Start referral processes differ by grantee in the manner a referral is made and

documented. All of the Head Start grantees we visited give referrals to families in need of

services. Head Start referral processes in the different grantees we visited include:

C informal information sharing between staff and families

C formal written procedures for documentation and follow-up

Families’ Needs Assessments 12 OEI-05-98-00540 
C the FSW calls ahead to service providers to verify availability of service for the 

families 

C Head Start staff make group decisions regarding what services families should 

access. 

In six of seven Head Start grantees we visited, FSWs determine which families should be 

given referrals for support services. Two of these six grantees (Illinois and Texas) report 

that the FSW, teacher, education coordinator and/or health coordinator hold “staffings” to 

determine referrals. Four Head Start grantees give the family a written referral, and two 

grantees make initial phone contact with the provider verifying availability of the needed 

service before referring the family. At one Head Start grantee, teachers provide referrals 

to families. Almost all of the Head Start grantees we visited indicate that they follow up 

on referrals. Another grantee we visited provides referrals and follow up exclusively on 

services for children. 

While some Head Start grantees emphasize referrals to outside service providers, others 

elect to meet families’ needs through onsite workshops and services rather than through 

referring families to other community agencies. Families and staff at these grantees report 

that workshops are well attended. These grantees provide workshops on a variety of 

topics including those that families indicate on their needs assessment form are of concern 

to them. 

Although they may provide effective ways to identify or address families’ needs, the 

various models of assessments, referrals and provision of services that we observed do not 

ensure that everyone’s needs are identified and resolved. For example, many Head Start 

grantees report that families often approach a teacher, rather than an FSW, with a problem 

or concern. Teachers may not be specifically trained to help families access services or 

make appropriate referrals. 

Also, while most Head Start grantees we visited rely on FSWs to refer families to needed 

services, some Head Start grantees provide information to their families by giving them 

copies of community resource books. Though useful for some families, providing a list or 

book may not help families with low literacy levels or non-English speakers. Additionally, 

a resource book alone may not help families find the providers who can best meet their 

needs. Similarly, Head Start grantees that focus on providing workshops often do this in 

lieu of referring families to other community agencies. Consequently, families’ needs may 

not be individually addressed and services already available in the community may be 

duplicated. 

Some Head Start grantees recognize the need to conduct the needs assessment 

later in the school year 

Families’ Needs Assessments 13 OEI-05-98-00540 
Delaying the timing of assessing families’ needs may improve the ability of Head Start 

grantees to effectively provide services. Historically, most Head Start grantees administer 

the needs assessment either during the Spring application period or at the beginning of the 

school year. According to most agency staff and families that we interviewed, some 

families need to establish trust before feeling comfortable expressing their needs. In 

response to this apprehension, beginning this year, Head Start families in the grantees we 

visited in California, Illinois and New York will complete the needs assessment later in the 

school year after relationships with Head Start staff are more established. In Illinois, the 

FSW will conduct the needs assessment and discuss the child’s educational and 

developmental screening at the same time later in the school year. 

Before the school year begins, families must complete large amounts of paperwork to 

enroll their child in Head Start and the needs assessment form may not hold importance to 

them at that time. A few families we spoke with who had a completed needs assessment 

in their Head Start file and/or who should have completed an assessment at the time of our 

interview, report that they do not recall filling out a Head Start form asking them about 

their family needs. Others report that they did not indicate needing any services when they 

filled out their form. Parents may not recall completing the needs assessment or 

appreciate how Head Start uses it to help them meet their needs. Consequently, the North 

Carolina grantee we visited encourages FSWs to focus more attention on the needs 

assessments form and process to make it more meaningful for parents. 

The Illinois and North Carolina Head Start grantees we visited periodically reassess 

families for additional needs. These grantees regularly revisit the needs assessment at 

home visits and at other parent meetings. These additional visits are important because 

families’ needs may have changed since the needs assessments were first completed, or 

families may not always indicate their needs on the assessment forms. 

Nearly all Head Start families we interviewed report receiving information, 

referrals and some services from Head Start grantees 

We found that low-income families enrolled in the Head Start program are more likely to 

have their needs assessed, be referred and access services than the families we interviewed 

receiving TANF or CCDF benefits. Head Start families we interviewed report receiving 

referrals and some services including transportation, child care, General Equivalency 

Degree classes or English as a Second Language classes, counseling services, and health 

care. One parent said she “loves Head Start because even though it’s for children it helps 

parents.” Despite these successes, some Head Start parents we interviewed need support 

services, but do not know that they can ask Head Start grantees for assistance as problems 

arise or that Head Start may facilitate access to services. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 14 OEI-05-98-00540 
State and local TANF agency policies, as well as caseworker 

discretion, affect the needs assessments, referral processes 

and the provision of support services that help families 

reach and maintain self-sufficiency 

The PRWORA legislation requires that TANF agencies make an “initial assessment of the 

skills, prior work experience and employability of each recipient,”and requires States “to 

conduct a program ... that... provides parents with support services to enable them to 

leave the program and become self-sufficient.”7 Most TANF agency policies indicate and 

staff respondents report that their focus is on assisting recipients make the transition from 

welfare to work. Consequently, in four of the seven TANF offices we visited, needs 

assessments and services provided to families exclusively focus on child care and 

transportation, and not other barriers to employment, such as emergency assistance (e.g., 

food, housing, clothing, and transportation), intervention (e.g., mental health, substance 

abuse, child abuse, and domestic violence), as well as employment services, child care, 

transportation and health care. 

State and Local Policies 

While five of seven local TANF agencies we visited have policies and procedures for 

assessing the needs of recipients, the methods by which they assess and the content of 

their assessments vary. At intake, most TANF recipients complete a brief skill and 

employability assessment and are asked if they have child care or transportation needs that 

would prevent them from holding a job. In four of the seven TANF offices we visited, 

caseworkers report they are not required to refer families to support services. In New 

York, the only referral obligation of caseworkers is to provide recipients with the names 

of two child care providers who have space available. 

There is no assurance that families are asked about their need for services. In three TANF 

offices we visited, if a recipient identifies a domestic violence, substance abuse, or mental 

health problem, the caseworkers will refer them for professional treatment. But these 

services are “client driven,” i.e., referrals for services are determined by what recipients 

indicate rather than caseworkers probing for support services that families need. 

Two TANF offices we visited in North Carolina and Illinois use needs assessment 

techniques similar to Head Start. Recipients undergo a detailed assessment which 

addresses a wide range of support services. In fact, North Carolina caseworkers go over a 

support services checklist with families every 6 months or at each meeting to determine if 

7

Public Law 104-193, Section 402(a)(1)(i) 

Families’ Needs Assessments 15 OEI-05-98-00540 
family needs are being addressed. Illinois is implementing a new process where 

caseworkers will informally update the assessment at every meeting with recipients. No 

other TANF offices we visited reassess recipient’s needs. 

Caseworker Discretion 

In Illinois, caseworkers not only provide recipients with referrals for a broad range of 

services, but can only make referrals to providers with whom they verify the providers 

availability to serve the recipient. Illinois caseworkers use a written referral form in 

triplicate with a copy for the caseworker, the family and the service provider. They also 

contact the service provider by telephone, note the action in the case file and follow up to 

see if the family received the services. 

Some caseworkers we spoke with report they try to help meet recipient’s needs on a 

case-by-case basis even though their State procedures do not require them to help families 

find services. In New York and California, caseworkers we interviewed report routinely 

using their own community lists and resources to help families access programs like Head 

Start and community food pantries. However, this is not agency protocol. 

Recipient Responses 

Twenty-three of thirty-two TANF recipients interviewed report that TANF caseworkers 

had neither assessed nor addressed their families’ needs. Most recipients report that 

caseworkers did not ask them if they need any support services, nor did they inform them 

of any available services through TANF or in the community. One parent who needs 

housing, says that she “did not learn about any services from the TANF agency and didn’t 

know they could help with services.” Some recipients have seen multiple caseworkers and 

did not know who they should contact to ask for help. Of the TANF recipients we 

interviewed who had been assessed, some were given referrals from their caseworkers. 

Most of these recipients found this information helpful. 

In some cases recipients face problems accessing needed services when services relate 

directly to employment. In New York, one recipient says her TANF benefits stopped 

when the transportation subsidies she needed to get to work never materialized, causing 

her to lose her job. Another recipient reports that she was “only told about job training.” 

When she asked her caseworker for help with transportation she “was told to call 411 (the 

directory assistance phone number).” Most families do not know if they can get 

information about community resources and services from their TANF office. A few 

caseworkers we interviewed report that they are not trained well enough to help families 

with the types of problems that arise. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 16 OEI-05-98-00540 
Individual child care programs do not assess family needs. 

Child Care Resource and Referral agencies are not required 

to assess family needs, but some may make informal 

assessments and refer families to needed services 

Neither Federal nor State law require that families using CCDF child care subsidies be 

assessed for needs beyond child care or offered additional services. In addition, CCDF 

does not provide specific funding for family needs assessments. None of the child care 

providers we visited administer needs assessments to their families. These child care 

providers do not consider it their responsibility to help families access support services. 

The child care directors we met with report little, if any, contact with community agencies. 

Further, most child care staff we interviewed know little about community services and do 

not routinely refer families to community services. One director reports that she “assumed 

that families would get information from public aid.” 

However, one child care director we interviewed espouses views similar to Head Start’s 

philosophy. He believes that in order to educate children, he must help their families 

access services. Along with other respondents, he feels: 

Families have lots of problems accessing services. They don’t even receive child care subsidy 

information from the welfare office and don’t know they are available. Families are intimidated 

to ask welfare caseworkers for help. 

Some low income families may get referral assistance for support services if they make 

their families’ needs known when they call a CCR&R for child care information. The 

CCR&Rs we visited report that other family needs may emerge when determining 

eligibility for subsidized child care or when providing child care information. These 

CCR&Rs will help families access needed services beyond child care, like family 

counseling, emergency services, transportation, education and job training. Many 

CCR&R staff report families’ awareness of community resources and services is scarce. 

The Head Start, TANF, Child Care Resource and Referral and 

child care programs we visited do not coordinate around 

individual families’ needs assessments. However, in some 

sites we visited, these agencies will make referrals to other 

agencies and frequently work together on community issues 

Families’ Needs Assessments 17 OEI-05-98-00540 
Coordination of families’ needs assessments between agencies has not yet 

evolved 

The welfare reform legislation that created TANF “affects not only needy families, but 

also intergovernmental relationships....It transforms the way agencies do business, 

requiring they engage in genuine partnerships with each other.”8 Although they all serve 

low-income families, some of whom are the same families, none of the Head Start, 

TANF, and child care providers we visited coordinate around an individual family’s needs. 

Federal guidance on coordination around families’ needs is unfocused. Head Start 

performance standards require that the Family Partnership Agreement consider and build 

on any other family plans from other community agencies. However, only two of seven 

Head Start grantees we visited ask families if they have plans or agreements with other 

agencies. There are no specific Federal requirements that TANF offices or individual child 

care programs coordinate around individual assessments. The Child Care Bureau believes 

that State and local child care planning should promote comprehensive services to families 

by linking child care to critical services like health, family support services, employment 

services, transportation, housing, etc. State Lead Child Care agencies are required to 

coordinate the provision of services with other programs including TANF and early 

childhood developmental programs. 

Very limited progress towards coordinating around families’ needs assessment has begun 

in some agencies. In North Carolina, a Head Start respondent said they are developing a 

written agreement with the TANF agency to share information on families’ needs 

assessments. The North Carolina TANF director indicated that they had considered 

including the Head Start Family Support Workers in their staffings to discuss families’ 

needs. In Nebraska, Head Start grantees met once with the State TANF agency to 

suggest coordinating around families’ needs assessments, but no agreement resulted from 

this meeting. Two Head Start directors we met with indicated a willingness to coordinate 

with other agencies on needs assessments, but are unsure how to proceed. 

Not everyone agrees that agencies should exchange information on individual family’s 

needs. Some workers feel that confidentiality issues prohibit sharing of data between 

agencies. One Head Start FSW said that it is not her job to discuss referrals with the 

welfare office and job services. Other respondents fear that staff in other agencies may 

not be knowledgeable about where to refer families for services or trained to assess family 

needs. Some Head Start employees believe they (or their contractors) can provide better 

service to families at the Head Start site, rather than referring families elsewhere for some 

services. 

8

Preamble to final rule, 64 FR17722. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 18 OEI-05-98-00540 
Lack of coordination may affect families’ access to resources 

Although Head Start, TANF and CCR&R agencies have different missions, they share a 

goal of helping families toward self-sufficiency. The absence of coordination around a 

family’s needs assessment may hinder a family’s ability to become self-sufficient. For 

example, one social service agency respondent reports that, in order to receive services, 

families may promise different things to different agencies on family partnership 

agreements or responsibility plans. These agreements or plans may pose conflicts and/or 

confuse families regarding deadlines and priorities. Moreover, agencies may penalize 

families for failing to live up to the terms of their contracts and agreements. 

Communities we visited varied in the extent of support services available to low-income 

families. In communities without many services, the lack of coordination between 

agencies may strain finite resources, decreasing the likelihood of families finding and 

accessing services. In contrast, in communities with more resources, duplication of 

services may result from a lack of coordination between Head Start, TANF and child care 

programs. One Head Start grantee we visited, for example, offered on-site services 

instead of referring families to other community agencies which provide the same service. 

Two additional respondents in other States were concerned about their agencies offering 

the same services that other community providers offered. 

In some communities that we visited, Head Start, TANF and CCR&R agencies 

communicate on matters not directly related to individual families and their needs 

assessments 

While there is no sharing of information on individual families’ needs, most Head Start, 

TANF and CCR&R staff routinely refer clients to each other’s agencies and some inform 

other agencies of a family’s participation in their programs. Almost all Head Start 

grantees we visited ask families if they access services at other community agencies. In 

Illinois the TANF agency provides some Head Start grantees with lists of TANF 

participants in nearby zip code areas, allowing Head Start to target their recruitment 

efforts. In California, TANF caseworkers visited Head Start grantees to inform staff and 

parents about welfare reform changes. Also in California, Head Start recruitment 

information is sometimes included with welfare checks. 

At some sites we visited, we found that numerous formal and informal agreements exist 

between agencies, including referrals from health services, child welfare, substance abuse, 

domestic violence and food pantries. In Nebraska, the TANF office we visited contracts 

with 11 local hospitals to take Medicaid applications for emergency room patients, assess 

their needs and refer them to appropriate agencies for social services. In North Carolina, 

Smart Start is a community partnership aimed at better preparing young children to enter 

school and is comprised of representatives from agencies such as Head Start, the 

Families’ Needs Assessments 19 OEI-05-98-00540 
Department of Social Services, and local health and mental health agencies. 

Head Start, TANF and CCR&R management staff often serve on community planning 

councils and interagency boards and workgroups, both locally and at the State level. To 

overcome some of the problems created by the lack of coordination, some multi-agency 

partnerships evolved in some communities that focus on particular community needs. In 

these instances, agencies sharing common goals are working together to serve children 

and their families. However, these councils, boards and workgroups do not resolve all 

interagency communication and coordination issues. One respondent states that the 

existing councils and projects are “excellent networking vehicles, but none have broken 

through to a collaborative effort [because]... agencies are afraid of losing their identity. 

Dwindling resources make us come together to work together. But some [agencies] are 

also competing for [clients].” 

Families’ Needs Assessments 20 OEI-05-98-00540 
OPPORTUNITIES 

FOR IMPROVEMENT 

Though they serve many of the same low-income families, Head Start, TANF and child

care programs vary substantially in the extent to which needs are assessed and addressed. 

Both Head Start grantees and TANF agencies are required by law to assess families’ needs

and provide families with support services. We found that families enrolled in the Head

Start program are more likely to have their needs assessed, be referred to and access

services than families receiving TANF or CCDF benefits. Needs assessments can be an

important tool in determining what services families need in order to become selfsufficient.

Since the enactment of welfare reform, States have reduced welfare caseloads

substantially. States’ efforts, as well as a healthy economy, have enabled many TANF

recipients to find employment and work towards self-sufficiency. As economic conditions

change or the pool of easier-to-serve clients diminishes, all three agencies will face greater

difficulties in serving families trying to reach or maintain self-sufficiency. We have

identified promising practices to encourage agencies to begin developing more effective

means to assess and address the needs of low-income families, including the coordination

of services to maximize the resources that enable families to realize 

self-sufficiency.

The Administration for Children and Families could further explore 

strategies that encourage and facilitate coordination between agencies 

around needs, referrals and provision of services for families 

The ACF could address current issues involving the coordination of families’ needs, 

referrals and provision of services and anticipate future trends that may require additional 

interagency coordination. Coordination around families’ needs between Head Start, 

TANF and child care programs, as well as with other community social service agencies, 

will become increasingly important in providing needed services to families working 

towards self-sufficiency. Agencies will face increased demands on their resources, both in 

the numbers of families needing services as well as the extent of their needs. 

Head Start, TANF and child care programs may benefit by coordinating with other 

agencies based on families’ needs. Coordination may allow for increased awareness of 

existing community services, more efficient use of resources, and reduced duplication of 

Families’ Needs Assessments 21 OEI-05-98-00540 
services. Further, coordination may permit agencies to specialize their services. The ACF 

could devise methods to provide ongoing guidance and support to State, local and 

community agencies delivering services to low-income families. Specific steps ACF could 

take include: 

C developing technical guidance addressing broad conceptual issues such as 

confidentiality, jurisdiction, and information sharing, 

C convening regional or national conferences highlighting the best coordinating and 

communicating practices among agencies, 

C disseminating best practices detailing the use of existing avenues for 

communication and coordination. Planning commissions and/or interagency 

workgroups exist at every site we visited. These entities provide many 

opportunities to resolve differences and share information on common and 

cross-cutting issues. 

The Administration for Children and Families could encourage Head 

Start grantees, TANF offices and child care programs to increase 

parent awareness about the resources they and other community 

agencies provide 

We found that families in all three programs lack knowledge about available services and

are uncomfortable expressing their families’ needs. Many parents do not know where to

find needed services or that Head Start, TANF offices and child care programs are

potential resources that may help them identify available support services. Further,

families indicate that they are often reluctant to make their needs known or pursue needed

services.

In order to meet Head Start, TANF and child care program goals and objectives relating

to these families, there is value in enhancing needs assessments, referrals and provision of

services. While we recognize that each program has specific missions and relates to States

and grantees in different ways, these programs and missions converge around 

low-income families trying to reach and maintain self-sufficiency. We suggest that ACF

encourage the following promising practices to increase parent awareness and access to

services through Head Start, TANF and child care:

C Complete the needs assessment at intake or eligibility determination and 

periodically measure family progress. This may ensure that previously indicated 

needs, as well as emerging needs, are met. In addition, families may be more 

Families’ Needs Assessments 22 OEI-05-98-00540 
comfortable expressing their needs as they become acquainted with a family 

service worker or caseworker. 

C Include questions on the needs assessment regarding what other agencies and 

services families are currently accessing. This may allow agencies to avoid 

duplication of services and conflicting service plans, as well as to facilitate the 

coordination of resources. 

C Increase staff and program awareness of available support services in the 

community through training, interagency information exchange and common 

resource books. 

C Include questions on the needs assessment that address general community needs. 

This may encourage families inhibited from expressing their personal needs to 

come forth with their problems and may help programs devise applicable 

workshops. 

C Sponsor on-site workshops and services for families if not accessible elsewhere in 

the community. 

C Establish formal referral processes and follow-up procedures to improve 

accountability of both staff and families. 

C Develop a comprehensive assessment tool for CCDF voucher management 

agencies. Needs assessments may be an effective way for CCR&Rs and child care 

programs to gain greater knowledge about the needs of their families and to 

develop strategies toward linking families with appropriate services. 

In addition to these opportunities for improvement, there is one other area that the Office 

of Inspector General (OIG) will evaluate. Since both agency and family interviews 

indicated that in most of the TANF agencies we visited, needs assessments and referrals to 

support services are not regularly being offered, the OIG will examine the degree to which 

States are complying with the law requiring them to “make an initial assessment of the 

skills, prior work experience and employability of each [TANF] recipient” and “to conduct 

a program ... that... provides parents with support services to enable them to leave the 

program and become self-sufficient.” 

Families’ Needs Assessments 23 OEI-05-98-00540 
AGENCY COMMENTS 

In their written comments, ACF wanted to distinguish between their legal authority to 

require State compliance and their encouragement for States to move in directions viewed 

as model practices. They also wanted to document certain actions they had already taken 

to address some of the underlying concerns expressed in our report. The full ACF 

comments are contained in the Appendix. Where appropriate, we changed the report to 

reflect their comments and concerns. 

We recognize that the nature of the relationship between ACF and the States has 

significantly changed since PRWORA was implemented. The ACF’s primary role is to 

ensure States’ compliance with TANF and CCDF regulations, while PRWORA gives the 

States unprecedented authority to administer the programs according to their own policy 

choices. The State’s TANF programs that have emerged are in various stages of 

development. States are still experimenting with ways to meet the PRWORA goals of 

reducing welfare dependency and helping participants reach and maintain 

self-sufficiency. 

We agree with ACF that the nature, mission and goal of each State’s TANF program is 

not centered on family assessments. We further agree with ACF that TANF does not 

require States to enter into an individual responsibility plan with their clients. Our intent in 

the report is not to become overly focused on a certain kind of formal needs assessment, 

but rather to meet the self-sufficiency needs of low-income parents and families served by 

these three programs. In order to help clients become self-sufficient, States first have to 

know what needs have to be met. In reviewing case files and discussing individual parent 

and family needs, we did not find, for the most part, that needs were being appropriately 

identified, either in a formal or informal way. Therefore, we have maintained our first 

suggested action but deleted the word “assessment” to avoid the impression we are 

encouraging TANF agencies and Child Care programs to conduct the same type of formal 

assessments as Head Start grantees. 

The ACF supports the concept that all child care providers have information on 

community resources to assist families with assessments. We agree that many child care 

providers are not trained to do the assessment themselves, nor that they have sufficient 

resources to hire support service staff. However, we did not find examples of child care 

programs or State agencies in the sites we visited which emphasize linking families to 

community services which can provide assessments or needed services. We believe 

further attention should be focused on ensuring that parents receiving subsidized care have 

access to information about community resources. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 24 OEI-05-98-00540 
The ACF stated that some collaboration among these three programs takes place. We 

support this collaboration. We emphasize that focusing local-level collaboration around 

identifying and providing for families’ needs remains an opportunity for improvement. If 

families participate in two or three of these programs, local-level coordination can ensure 

a more focused plan for individual families and improve the efficiency of resource 

utilization. 

Finally, as welfare caseloads continue to drop, States are increasingly looking for ways to 

help remaining recipients make the transition from welfare to work. Many of the 

recipients remaining on the rolls face myriad personal and family problems which may 

hinder rapid employment and long-term attachment to the labor force. Appropriate 

identification of needs can enable States to provide or refer recipients to the services 

which will help facilitate a successful transition to employment and self-sufficiency. 

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget also commented on the 

report. They conceptually agree with the report, but point out that limited funding and the 

reduced Federal role in welfare administration may hamper the coordination efforts we 

recommend. 

Families’ Needs Assessments 25 OEI-05-98-00540 
APPENDIX 

Administration for Children and Families 

Comments on the Draft Report

Families’ Needs Assessments 26 OEI-05-98-00540