Stateline Stories

Why Are Welfare Rolls Flat, While the Food Stamp Program Grows Rapidly?

Advocates for the poor say welfare programs are ill-designed for hard economic times. Some Republicans, however, don’t see welfare as broken, but instead as a model for other social initiatives.

Battle Against Stalking Escalates

Concerns over in-person and online stalking have led lawmakers to create new orders of protection. But enforcement is often up to the victims and most don’t pursue it.

Grandparents Need More State Help to Raise Kids

More children are living with relatives or close family friends because their parents can no longer care for them, but most states aren’t doing enough to help, a new report says.

Perry Says State Will Maintain Women's Services

TODAY'S TAKE: Texas Governor Rick Perry told the President Obama that the state will find its own money to pay for women's health services if federal funding is cut off in a dispute over Planned Parenthood.

Food Banks Drawing Statewide Attention

SOCIAL POLICY BEAT: Emergency food banks are attracting increased interest from state officials this year, but what many of them would like is more money.

States Get Chance to Experiment With Child Welfare Systems

More states will be given the opportunity to try and transform their child welfare systems with the help of federal dollars, but not without federal strings.

Protests Mark Child Poverty Forums in Kansas

SOCIAL POLICY BEAT: Holding town hall meetings on ways to reduce childhood poverty might seem unlikely to offend anyone. But don't tell that to the folks in Kansas.

Penn State Case Spurs Movement for New Child Abuse Reporting Laws

TODAY'S TAKE: The Penn State sex abuse scandal has lawmakers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and elsewhere considering new reporting requirements for those who learn of crimes against children.

Texas Saves Big Money Through Effective Child Support Enforcement

The Lone Star state may know more than any other about collecting overdue child support. And in a tough budget year, the state managed to increase funds for a novel program that gives noncustodial parents who are behind on child support a choice: a job or jail.

Infographic: The Aging States of America

For states, changing demographic patterns, visualized here as "population pyramids," have major implications for policy and politics.

Report: South Struggles to Provide Child Well-Being

TODAY'S TAKE: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi rank lowest on a new 50-state assessment of child well-being.

Infographic: Aging Boomers

55 million Americans will be 65 and older by 2020.

Driving Services Help Senior Mobility Without Spending Public Money

Many elderly people have difficulty driving, but lack access to public transit. There's a growing movement to solve their problem.

Infographic: Underwater Mortgages Still a Drag on Housing

More than three out of five Nevada homeowners with mortgages owe more on that loan than their property is worth. Although the problem with "underwater" mortgages has been incrementally improving, it remains a drag on the housing market and economies of many states.

Planned Parenthood Fight Shifts to States

TODAY'S TAKE: Governor Mitch Daniels will decide within the next week whether Indiana will become the first state to cut off all government funding for Planned Parenthood. Kansas could approve a similar measure soon.

LePage Sparks a Child Labor Debate in Maine

Governor Paul LePage thinks letting young people ages 16 and over work longer hours is a good idea. Critics accuse him of seeking to undo labor regulations that have been widely accepted for decades.

Food Stamp Rolls Reach Historic Levels

More Americans than ever before are getting federal help to buy groceries. Which state is seeing caseloads grow the fastest? You might be surprised to find out.

How Utah Came to Own a Half-Built City in the Desert

When the recession drove a Western developer out of the real estate business, an obscure state land agency was left with a choice: Either buy out the developer or let someone else do it. The agency's decision will take years to pay off.Part two in a series.

Six States Lead in Children's Dental Health

TODAY'S TAKE: New Mexico has fewer dentists per capita than all but one state, and one in five of its residents is uninsured. Despite its challenges, the state is among six national leaders in providing for the dental health of its children, according to a new 50-state report by the Pew Center on the States, the parent organization of Stateline.org. About two-thirds of the states, in fact, do not have adequate policies in place for children's dental health, with nine states receiving failing grades, the study found.

Tracking the Recession: Tuition Programs in Danger

As the Obama administration addresses the rising cost of college, many of the prepaid college tuition programs that help keep prices down have been damaged by the weak economy.

States Move to Regulate Senior Guardians

As the U.S. population ages and families scatter across the country, the frail elderly increasingly end up relying on court-appointed guardians when they can no longer take care of their personal affairs. California just joined six other states in watching over these professionals charged with protecting society's most vulnerable adults.

In School Sports, Who Makes the Call?

A shot at the buzzer of a high school championship game - was it in time or not? - led the South Carolina Legislature to consider a bill to require referees to watch video replays. It was hardly the first example of armchair quarterbacking by lawmakers.

Silver Alert Helps Rescue Lost Seniors

(Updated 9:30 a.m EST, May 8, 2008)When an elderly person with dementia is lost, eight states can trigger an alert to let the community know. Proposals in Congress would expand the successful missing persons program to all 50 states.

States Lead Feds in Toy Safety

Reacting to an increase in toy recalls and consumer complaints, 29 states have pursued legislation that in some way regulates toy safety. The toy industry, meanwhile, says abiding by such a wide range of laws is challenging.

Some states reconsider youth sex laws

Lawmakers across the country continue to mete out harsh punishments to sex offenders - from satellite tracking to the death penalty - but a handful of states have eased up on penalties in cases of youths prosecuted for consensual sex.

Walking to a 'green' school: Impossible new-century dream?

Little Johnny and Jane are back in school - but are we doing our best for him or her? Put aside, for a moment, "No Child Left Behind" teaching issues. Ask instead: How are the kids getting to school? And when they get there, are their school buildings satisfactorily "green" and healthy?

Congress Tackles States' Agenda

As the domestic agenda takes center stage in Congress, states are sending lawmakers a simple message: more money and less federal interference.

Lawmakers Promote Health Care for Kids

This spring spelled trouble for pricey plans in Illinois and Pennsylvania to deliver health care for all residents. But efforts to insure children are faring better, with lawmakers in Hawaii and New York deciding to deliver health insurance to all kids.

High School Athletes Next for Steroid Tests

(Updated 12:45 p.m. EDT, Monday, June 18)A year after New Jersey became the first state to mandate random steroid testing for high school athletes, Texas and Florida are on the verge of launching their own testing programs, and Illinois may not be far behind.

Lawmakers Want to Pump Kids Up

Florida's school children next fall will be part of a trend reversal in which state lawmakers are starting to bring back physical education classes to combat childhood obesity.

Quick Cancer Mandate Raises Health Concerns

A look at the history of vaccines in the United States sheds light on why a number of vaccine experts are uneasy over the quick march toward requiring a new cervical cancer inoculation.

States Say No to Teen Tanning

No smoking. No drinking. No talking on cell phones while driving. Now, the latest no-no in state laws aimed at underage teens is indoor tanning.

Health Care, REAL ID Top Govs' Priorities

The nation's governors staked out children's health care and the National Guard as top concerns for a Democratic-controlled Congress that is preoccupied with the war in Iraq, a daunting federal deficit and the problem of uninsured Americans. In their first gathering since Democrats took control of Congress last November, governors made it clear that they want to play a major role on issues that the White House and Capitol Hill will tackle in the coming year, including a popular children's health program.

Govs, Bush Vow Closer Health-Care Efforts

The Bush administration pledged to help states in danger of running out of money for a popular children's health program and agreed to work with a newly created task force of governors on ideas for overall health-care reform. Iraq, education, energy and immigration also were among the issues that President Bush and his Cabinet discussed Monday (Feb. 26) with the nation's governors.

Govs Press for Action on Child Health Care

Governors are expected to urge President Bush today to work with Congress to quickly provide $765 million to prevent at least 14 states from running out of money for a popular children's health program. Health care, Iraq, and the federal No Child Left Behind education law are expected to be top issues when governors meet this morning with the president and several Cabinet members as part of the National Governors Association's winter meeting.

Health Care to Top Govs' Meeting in D.C.

Health care is expected to dominate discussions when the nation's governors converge in Washington, D.C., this weekend for the National Governors Association winter meeting. Also high on the governors' agendas: use of the National Guard in Iraq, the federal No Child Left Behind education law and a sweeping new mandate to revamp drivers' licenses.

How Many Kids Will Congress Cover?

After a growth spurt, the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance program faces an identity crisis. President Bush wants to refocus its efforts on covering low-income children. But with the number of uninsured Americans swelling, some governors and advocates for children have bigger ideas - with bigger price tags.

States Press Congress for S-CHIP Fix

At least six states - Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island - are projected to run out of federal money for the State Children's Health Insurance Program by May, and they're looking to Congress to fix the problem quickly. But they're also asking for a long-term solution so states won't have to ask Congress to retool S-CHIP's funding formulas every year.

Will Congress Patch Up Kids' Coverage?

An estimated 17 states could run out of money for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) by next October, unless Congress acts. But coming up with a fix could be tricky, because the lame-duck Congress is only expected to meet briefly next week and a solution could cost the federal government more than $920 million.

Report: States Need to Step Up on Higher Ed

States must take the lead in the movement to fix the higher education crisis, a report released Monday by a commission of state legislators said. "Higher education is a national imperative, there's no question about that, but it has been and remains a state responsibility," said Connecticut Rep. Denise Merrill (D).

Calif., Ore. Voters to Decide Parental Notice

Voters in California and Oregon will decide Nov. 7 whether to join 35 other states in preventing teenage girls from getting abortions without a parent's knowledge. Oregon voters are expected to approve the measure, but California's electorate is split over the emotionally charged issue, according to recent polls. If either state adopts the initiative, it will be the first law restricting abortion in those states in more than a decade.

Kids' Snack Food Modeled After State Law

LOS ANGELES -- When Clif Bar & Co. was devising its new organic energy bar for kids in early 2004, product developers turned to California Senate Bill 19 for direction. The snack bar, now sold throughout the country, carries a logo declaring it meets California's 2001 law recommending limits on fat and calories in school snacks.

States failing to secure personal data

A recent rash of stolen government laptops, hacked computer databases and misplaced files has highlighted the difficulty public agencies have protecting personal data from falling into the hands of identity thieves and other criminals.

States Expand Kinship Care Programs

As the rolls of orphaned and neglected children swell, states increasingly are turning for help to grandparents and other family members, who now are providing homes for some 2.5 million children whose parents can no longer care for them. But the federal government hasn't made it easy.

States Promote Nursing, Protect Moms

Mississippi, the state with the lowest breastfeeding rate in the country, has passed a broad new law allowing mothers to nurse at work and in public. In addition, five other states - Arizona, Kentucky, Kansas, South Carolina and Alabama - passed laws protecting mothers from charges of indecent exposure when they nurse in public places.

Report: States tax low-income families

The state income-tax burden faced by poor families has declined in the past 15 years, but some low-income families still incurred substantial state income-tax bills in 2005, according to a Feb. 22 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington D.C. group that focuses on policies affecting the poor. The report includes a state-by-state analysis.

Child-Support Enforcement Takes Hit

Deep slashes in the federal child-support enforcement program -- included in Congress' most recent budget cuts -- have left states searching for ways to avoid scaling back what has been hailed as the government's most successful social-services program.

Feds Pinch State Welfare Programs

Congress has reauthorized the 1996 welfare reform program -- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) -- maintaining historic funding levels, but imposing tougher work standards. Welfare advocates say the new rules will discourage state innovation in work support programs. Supporters say the stricter rules will force states to do what the block grant program was originally intended to do -- move needy families from welfare to work.

Teen drivers kill many more

A new report uncovers the wider tragedy of fatal car crashes involving teen drivers and is putting new impetus behind state efforts to limit passengers in teenagers' cars.

Hal Hovey Award

Two reporters from suburban Chicagos Daily Herald have won the second annual Hal Hovey Award, presented by Stateline.org and Governing Magazine, for outstanding journalistic coverage of state and local government. Sara Burnett and Dave Orrick were chosen for the award for their series, Fostering Frustration, which documents problems facing the Illinois foster care system and the complicated results of recent reforms.

Southern States Brace for Effects of Aging Population

Southern governors, whose states hold the largest percentage of elderly in the nation, are looking to New York for ways to prepare for a graying population.

Governors Talk About Ways to Aid Elderly

States must act to help the elderly enjoy their golden years with dignity and good health care, U.S. governors agreed Sunday. At the National Governors Association annual meeting, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R) listed 20 ways governors can improve lives of the aging and disabled.

Panel Calls for Sweeping Foster Care Fixes

The countrys ailing foster care system lets children languish too long in temporary rather than permanent homes and is in need of a two-tiered overhaul targeting federal financing and court oversight, according to a new report by a panel of child welfare experts. But states may be wary to embrace the new proposal wholeheartedly because they will likely need time to examine how the proposed changes would impact foster care funding and flexibility.

Commission Calls for Foster Care Reforms

A panel of child welfare experts today called for a bevy of changes to fix flaws in the countrys foster care system that have allowed children to get stuck in foster care limbo for too long, suffer abuse and neglect and sometimes go missing. The new report targets two key areas as needing improvement: federal funding and judicial oversight.

Commission Launched to Reform Foster Care

Instances of children missing from foster care and suffering abuse and neglect while under state custody should motivate lawmakers to reform failing foster care programs, according to a new commission that plans to come up with recommendations to help improve the lives of foster children.

States Fret About Child Care Needs

Only 12 percent of families eligible for child care get the help they need. But President Bushs welfare reform reauthorization plan doesnt have any new money for child care, which concerns advocates for the poor and some state lawmakers.

States Support Nursing Mothers

Nobody seriously doubts the value of breast-feeding, but until recently the connection between nursing and employment hasnt been on policymakers radar screens. Now, in what appears to be a trend, lawmakers in 31 states have approved breast-feeding legislation within the last eight years.

State Spending On Early Childhood Programs Skyrockets, Report Finds

State spending on programs for young children and their families rose to $3.7 billion in 2000, an 87 percent increase over 1998, a bi-annual review of early childhood and family programs has found. The report, released Wednesday by the National Center for Children in Poverty, finds that four states -- California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Vermont -- provide the most comprehensive supports for families with young children.

Media Accused Of Marketing Violence To Kids

A new government report says motion picture, music and electronic games companies unscrupulously market products that promote violence to children under 17-years-of-age. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found evidence in marketing and media plans that "expressly target children under 17" and promote the products in outlets frequented by youngsters.

States Experiment With CHIP Outreach Methods

Since Congress created the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, states have been trying to provide health insurance to kids whose parents earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance. It has not been easy. Of the estimated 11 million children without health insurance in the United States, only two million were enrolled in state CHIP programs as of December 31, 1999. Using such novel approaches as raffling off a chainsaw and locating signup teams in shopping malls, states are doing everything they can think of to boost enrollment in the program.

States To Lose Billions For Children's Health

As many as 37 states are set to lose more than $1 billion meant for health care for low-income children because they will miss a September deadline to spend the money. The states had three years to use a grant appropriated by Congress in 1998, but the Health Care Financing Administration estimates 75 percent of them will not meet the deadline. Among the states slated to give up funds are California and Texas, where 29 percent of the nation's uninsured children now live.

Minnesota Tops For Kids, Report Finds

Because of its low poverty rate and success in keeping teenagers in school, Minnesota is the best place to be a kid, a national report has found. In its annual survey of the well-being of children in the 50 states, the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks Minnesota number one, displacing last year's winner, New Hampshire. The Granite State, which has ranked in the Kids Count top ten every year since 1990, slipped to second place.

Millions To Ensure Health Coverage For Poor Go Unspent

The states have failed to spend money set aside specifically to prevent poor children from losing their health insurance as a result of welfare reform. Even as hundreds of thousands were losing their health coverage, millions of dollars in a federal Medicaid transition fund went unused. Advocates for the uninsured have estimated that most of the poor children who lost Medicaid coverage following welfare reform were still eligible.

Experts Encouraged By Decline in Child Abuse

The tidal wave of child abuse and neglect that has cascaded across the United States over the past 15 years is ebbing and because states are now taking a more aggressive approach to the problem, there is reason to hope the declines will continue, experts say. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that cases of neglected and abused children fell for the fifth straight year in 1998.

States Consider Covering Parents Under CHIP Program

Last month, President Clinton proposed spending $76 billion over 10 years to provide health care benefits to approximately 4 million of the nation's estimated 44 million uninsured citizens. He wants to allow matching grants to cover uninsured parents of children eligible for states' Children's Health Insurance Programs, or CHIP. The proposal has caught the attention of the nation's governors. Wisconsin already covers parents of CHIP-eligible kids using matching Medicaid funds.

Newborn Hearing Tests A Growing State Trend

New York is the latest of a growing number of states requiring hospitals to screen newborn babies for hearing impairment. Gov. George Pataki signed the bill into law December 22 in a move that coincided with the launch of a national campaign urging all states to have such tests. Research indicates that when a baby is tested in the first six months of life and found to be hearing impaired, there is time to eliminate deafness with modern technology and get the child on a normal learning schedule.

States Advance In Extending Health Insurance To Poor Kids

The Clinton administration announced Tuesday that 47 states have enrolled almost two million children in their Children's Health Insurance Programs, double the number enrolled a year ago. To see the enrollment figures for all 50 states, see the Health Care Financing Administration report. The White House also announced Tuesday that it will ask Congress for an additional $2.7 billion to enroll children in either Medicaid or CHIP.

99's Top State Health Issues: Tobacco, HMOs, Eldercare

State lawmakers spent much of 1999 wrestling with how to spend their portion of the whopping $206 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, enacting patient-protection legislation and considering how to provide more services for the elderly. States were also busy getting their Children's Health Insurance Programs off the ground and signing up uninsured kids. In this, the first of a series of special reports, stateline.org looks at the state of state healthcare policy.

Maine's Contrasting Statistics on Children

The Children's Rights Council recently declared Maine as the best state to raise a child. However, a closer look at all available statistics show the state lagging behind in several important categories. In the words of one key official: "We may start them out right but they don't end right."

Doctors Call For Moratorium On Hepatitis B Vaccine

An Arizona group of physicians has called for a moratorium on controversial hepatitis B immunizations for schoolchildren pending further study of possible dangerous side effects from the vaccine, and accuses school districts that require the shots of "practicing medicine without a license." In a separate development last week, the U.S. Public Health Service and the powerful American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine be postponed from birth until two to six months of age because it contains the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which can be toxic if small infants receive too much of it. For more information, go to

States' Children's Health Insurance Programs Get Good Report

Nearly one million children from low-income families are getting healthcare benefits under states' Children's Health Insurance Programs, or CHIPs, according to the first government report on the massive program created by Congress in 1997. In the report, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said states and the federal government have made "considerable progress" getting the program up and running despite a short implementation period and the challenges of establishing programs outside of Medicaid to insure poor children.

A Portrait of America's Mothers From Census, Financial Data

How much is a Mother worth? One financial analyst estimates the value of a mother's services at more than $500,000 a year. Since Sunday is Mother's Day, stateline.org has compiled some interesting facts on the 35 million American women who are raising children.

Wyoming Adopts Health Insurance For Kids Of Working Poor

Wyoming, the second to last state to construct a plan to provide health insurance to kids of the working poor, has finally adopted the necessary legislation, but it took two years and a contentious battle among lawmakers. On March 1, Republican Gov. Jim Geringer signed into law a bill that launches KidCare, Wyoming's version of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Congress established the program in 1997 as part of the Balanced Budget Act, but Geringer and conservative legislators had long opposed the structure of CHIP, labeling it an "entitlement" program rather than a block grant, and a threat to "personal responsibility."

Children's Insurance Enrollment Numbers Disappointing, Experts Say

Spurred on by President Bill Clinton, Congress in 1997 created the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a ten year, $48 billion plan to fund health care for kids of the working poor. It was the biggest federal investment in health insurance since Medicare and Medicaid were established 34 years ago. But the state-administered program is off to a slow start, with less than one in five of the estimated five million children eligible enrolled so far. The scanty participation is worrisome to some, who say the program's funding could be at risk if states cannot find and enroll more kids.

Education and Marital Status Key To Keeping Kids Out Of Poverty

The nation's new welfare program is a first step in improving the financial well-being of many of the nation's poor children, but it will fall well short of moving many of them out of poverty. An analysis of the working poor released yesterday by the Washington research group, Child Trends, finds children whose parents work as mandated by the new welfare law are far less likely to be poor than children in families whose parents are unemployed. But, the Child Trends analysis finds that improving work participation and marriage will not be enough.

Health Care Review Infrequently Used in Many States

Consumer clamor for health care reform has state and federal lawmakers scrambling to enact patient protection legislation before the year is out. But in over one-third of the states, laws have already been enacted that have established an independent, impartial process for appealing denials of coverage. The programs are quick, hassle-free and inexpensive, and patients have about a 50-50 chance of getting negative decisions from their health plan overturned. But a Kaiser Family Foundation Report and stateline.org research shows that programs remain obscure and infrequently used

Governors Set The Table For Washington Conference

Education, children's health, welfare reform and public safety top the agenda at the annual winter meeting of the nation's governors, which will take place in Washington Feb. 20-23 in a climate of cooperation and bipartisanship. Mindful of the distrust surrounding politics in the nation's capital in the aftermath of President Clinton's impeachment trial, Republican and Democratic state leaders have chosen "Progress Through Partnerships" as the theme of their four-day meeting.

New Study Paints Grim Picture Of Lifestyle For U.S. Underclass

A vast national survey of the financial, emotional and mental well-being of American families finds poor children and their parents are at least twice as likely to suffer a wide range of hardships than their wealthier counterparts."Snapshots of America's Families", released this morning by the Urban Institute, also reveals significant disparities in family health across states, with high percentages of households in California and Texas, the nation's two most populous states, in financial and emotional trouble.