When an assistance case includes an older adult, an adolescent, and a very young child, it is often unclear whether the adolescent or the older adult is the parent of the young child. Income eligibility staff must identify relationships among the household members, record these relationships, and act upon the information appropriately. Since minor parents are a relatively small proportion of most welfare caseloads, staff may have no opportunity to become proficient in applying the complex rules to them. Data systems that record the characteristics of parent-child relationships among all case members greatly facilitate identifying teenage parents, especially those who receive assistance as a member of someone else's grant. If existing data systems do not provide this support and cannot easily be modified, staff effort can compensate.
Several strategies can help identify all teenage parents.
Programs can pursue strategies that support the efforts of busy staff in applying complex rules to a small proportion of their caseload. Attendance policies covering all school-age minors allow TANF compliance without identifying minor parents. Requiring all children in families receiving cash assistance to attend school as a condition of assistance eliminates the need to identify teenage parents in order to enforce a school attendance requirement. Such policies, however, may sacrifice the capacity to target teenage parents for special services that support school attendance. To meet this requirement, state welfare agencies must define school attendance requirements, obtain attendance information, and follow up with teenagers who fail to attend school.