Worforce Development, Welfare Reform and ChildWell-Being

I communicated with the principal of Mother's Earth Children's Charter School, but she did not respond this week.  As a result, I accessed http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/forum_wp1/ and found a working paper which is aligned with the EDUC 6162 course materials and my interests.  The working paper is entitled "Workforce Development, Welfare Reform, and Child Well-Being".  When I think of workforce development and welfare reform, I think about getting adults back to work.  I tend not to think about the unintended consequences of workforce development policies on children.  After reading this paper, I had these insights:
1.  Five different experiments examining various approaches to work and welfare policies across the U.S. and Canada revealed mandated employment policies versus "make work pay" policies had an impact on children.  "Make work pay" policies with supports improved the academic performance and social behavior of children, while the mandatory work with no supports did not.
2.  "Make work pay" supports include child care subsidies, health insurance subsidies, case managers with low workloads, temporary jobs, job training, and wage supplements.  Child care supports were determined to be an important "effective factor" on children.
3.  Contrary to what was seen with young children, both the mandatory employment policies and "make work pay" policies had negative effects on parents perception of their teenagers.  This may be due to fewer interactions between the working parent and the adolescent and/or the adolescent has to start taking care of younger siblings because the parent is now working.
In summary, this paper continued to expand my understanding of how policies impact equity.  There are examples all over the country of how policies can be implemented in a manner which supports parents and their children.  This paper indicated the positive results of "make work pay" were consistent across cities in and outside of the U.S. 

Reference
Center on the Development Child: Harvard University. (2007). Workforce Development, Welfare Reform, and Child Well-Being.  Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/forum_wp1/