State of Illinois
90th General Assembly
Legislation

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90_SB0755sam001

                                           LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1                    AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 755
 2        AMENDMENT NO.     .  Amend Senate Bill 755  by  replacing
 3    everything after  the enacting clause with the following:
 4        "Section  5.   The Illinois Public Aid Code is amended by
 5    adding Section 12-4.33 as follows:
 6        (305 ILCS 5/12-4.33 new)
 7        Sec.    12-4.33.     Welfare    reform    research    and
 8    accountability.
 9        (a)  The Illinois Department  shall  collect  and  report
10    upon all data in connection with federally funded or assisted
11    welfare  programs  as federal law may require, including, but
12    not limited to, Section 411 of  the  Personal  Responsibility
13    and  Work  Opportunity  Reconciliation  Act  of  1996 and its
14    implementing regulations and any amendments  thereto  as  may
15    from time to time be enacted.
16        (b)  In  addition to and on the same schedule as the data
17    collection required by federal law and  subsection  (a),  the
18    Department  shall  collect  and report on further information
19    with respect to the Temporary Assistance for  Needy  Families
20    ("TANF") program, as follows:
21             (1)  With  respect  to  denials  of applications for
22        benefits, all of the same information  about  the  family
                            -2-            LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1        required  under the federal law, plus the specific reason
 2        or reasons for denial of the application.
 3             (2)  With respect to all terminations  of  benefits,
 4        all of the same information as required under the federal
 5        law,   plus  the  specific  reason  or  reasons  for  the
 6        termination.
 7        (c)  The Department shall collect all of the same data as
 8    set forth in  subsections (a) and (b), and report it  on  the
 9    same  schedule,  with respect to all cash assistance benefits
10    provided to families  that  are  not  funded  from  the  TANF
11    program  federal block grant or are not otherwise required to
12    be   included   in  the  data  collection  and  reporting  in
13    subsections (a) and (b).
14        (d)  Whether or not reports under this  Section  must  be
15    submitted to the federal government, they shall be considered
16    public  and  they  shall  be  promptly made available to  the
17    public at the end of each fiscal year, free  of  charge  upon
18    request.   The  data  underlying  the  reports  shall be made
19    available  to  academic  institutions   and   public   policy
20    organizations  involved  in  the  study  of welfare issues or
21    programs  and redacted to  conform  with  applicable  privacy
22    laws.   The  cost  shall be no more than that incurred by the
23    Department in assembling and delivering the data.
24        (e)  The Department shall, in addition to  the  foregoing
25    data  collection  and reporting activities, seek a university
26    to conduct, at no cost  to  the  Department,  a  longitudinal
27    study  of  the  implementation  of  TANF  and related welfare
28    reforms.   The  study  shall  select  subgroups  representing
29    important sectors of  the  assistance  population,  including
30    type  of  area  of  residence  (city,  suburban,  small town,
31    rural), English proficiency, level of   education,  literacy,
32    work  experience,  number  of  adults  in the home, number of
33    children in the home,  teen  parentage,  parents  before  and
34    after  the  age  of  18,  and other such subgroups.  For each
                            -3-            LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1    subgroup, the study  shall  assemble  a  statistically  valid
 2    sample  of  cases entering the TANF program at least 6 months
 3    after its implementation date and prior to July 1, 1998.  The
 4    study shall continue until December 31, 2004.  The Department
 5    shall report to the General  Assembly  and  the  Governor  by
 6    March  1  of  each year, beginning March 1, 1999, the interim
 7    findings of the study with respect to each subgroup,  and  by
 8    March  1,  2005,  the  final  findings  with  respect to each
 9    subgroup. The reports shall be available to the  public  upon
10    request.  No later than November 1, 1997, the  Department, in
11    consultation with an advisory panel of specialists in welfare
12    policy, social  science,  and  other  relevant  fields  shall
13    devise the study and identify the factors to be studied.  The
14    study   shall,   however,  at  least  include  the  following
15    features:
16             (1)  Demographic  breakdowns  including,   but   not
17        limited  to,  race, gender, and number of children in the
18        household at the beginning of Department services.
19             (2)  The  Department  shall  obtain  permission   to
20        conduct  the  study  from  the  subjects of the study and
21        guarantee their privacy according to  the  privacy  laws.
22        To  facilitate this permission, the study may be designed
23        to refer to subjects by pseudonyms or codes and shall  in
24        any  event  guarantee  anonymity  to the subjects without
25        limiting access by outsiders  to  the  data  (other  than
26        identities) generated by the study.
27             (3)  The  subjects  of  the  study shall be followed
28        after denial or termination of assistance, to the  extent
29        feasible.    The  evaluator  shall  attempt  to  maintain
30        personal contact with the  subjects  of  the  study,  and
31        employ  such  methods  as  meetings,  telephone contacts,
32        written surveys, and computer  matches  with  other  data
33        bases  to  accomplish  this  purpose.  The intent of this
34        feature of the study is to discover the paths people take
                            -4-            LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1        after leaving welfare  and  the  patterns  of  return  to
 2        welfare,  including the factors that may influence  these
 3        paths and patterns.
 4             (4)  The  study  shall  examine  the  influence   of
 5        various  employability,  education, and training programs
 6        upon  employment,  earnings,  job  tenure,  and   cycling
 7        between welfare and work.
 8             (5)  The   study  shall  examine  the  influence  of
 9        various supportive services such as child care (including
10        type and cost), transportation, and  payment  of  initial
11        employment   expenses   upon  employment,  earnings,  job
12        tenure, and cycling between welfare and work.
13             (6)  The  study  shall  examine  the  frequency   of
14        unplanned occurrences in subjects' lives, such as illness
15        or   injury,  family  member's  illness  or  injury,  car
16        breakdown, strikes, natural disasters, evictions, loss of
17        other sources of income, domestic  violence,  and  crime,
18        and  their  impact upon employment, earnings, job tenure,
19        and cycling between welfare and work.
20             (7)  The study shall examine  the  wages  and  other
21        compensation,  including  health  benefits  and what they
22        cost  the  employee,  received  by  subjects  who  obtain
23        employment, the type and  characteristics  of  jobs,  the
24        hours  and  time  of  day  of work, union status, and the
25        relationships of such factors to  earnings,  job  tenure,
26        and cycling between welfare and work.
27             (8)  The   study   shall  examine  the  reasons  for
28        subjects' job loss, the    availability  of  Unemployment
29        Insurance, the reasons for a subject's return to welfare,
30        programs  or  services utilized by subjects in the search
31        for another job, the  characteristics  of  the  subjects'
32        next  job,  and  the  relationships  of  these factors to
33        re-employment, earnings, job tenure on the new  job,  and
34        cycling between welfare and work.
                            -5-            LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1             (9)  The study shall examine the impact of mandatory
 2        work requirements, including the types of work activities
 3        to  which  the  subjects  were  assigned,  and  the links
 4        between  the  requirements   and   the   activities   and
 5        sanctions,  employment, earnings, job tenure, and cycling
 6        between welfare and work.
 7             (10)  The  study  shall  identify  all  sources  and
 8        amounts  of  reported    household  non-wage  income  and
 9        examine the influence  of  the  sources  and  amounts  of
10        non-wage  non-welfare income on employment, earnings, job
11        tenure, and cycling between welfare and work.
12             (11)  The study shall examine  sanctions,  including
13        child  support    enforcement and paternity establishment
14        sanctions, the  reasons  sanctions  are  threatened,  the
15        number  threatened,  the  number imposed, and the reasons
16        sanctions  are  not  imposed  or  are  ended,   such   as
17        cooperation achieved or good cause established.
18             (12)  The  study  shall track the subjects' usage of
19        TANF benefits over the course of  the  lifetime  60-month
20        limit  of  TANF eligibility, including patterns of usage,
21        relationships between consecutive usage of large  numbers
22        of months and other factors, status of all study subjects
23        with  respect  to  the  time  limit  as  of  each report,
24        characteristics of subjects  exhausting  the  eligibility
25        limit, types of exceptions granted to the 60-month limit,
26        and numbers of cases within each type of exception.
27             (13)  The  study shall track subjects' participation
28        in other public systems, including  the  public  schools,
29        the  child  welfare  system, the criminal justice system,
30        homeless and food services, and  others  and  attempt  to
31        identify the positive or negative ripple effects in these
32        systems of welfare policies, systems, and procedures.
33        (f)  The  Department  shall  cooperate in any appropriate
34    study by an independent expert of the  impact  upon  Illinois
                            -6-            LRB9003229SMdvam02
 1    resident   non-citizens  of  the  denial  or  termination  of
 2    assistance  under  the  Supplemental  Security  Income,  Food
 3    Stamps, TANF, Medicaid, and Title XX social services programs
 4    pursuant to the  changes  enacted  in  the  federal  Personal
 5    Responsibility  and  Work  Opportunity  Reconciliation Act of
 6    1996.  The purpose of such a study must  be  to  examine  the
 7    immediate and long-term effects on this population and on the
 8    State  of  the  denial  or  termination  of  these  forms  of
 9    assistance,  including  the  impact  on  the individuals, the
10    alternate means they find to obtain support and care, and the
11    impact on   state  and  local  spending  and  human  services
12    delivery  systems.   An  appropriate  study  shall  select  a
13    statistically  valid  sample  of persons denied or terminated
14    from each type of benefits and attempt to  track  them  until
15    December  31,  2000.   Any reports from the study received by
16    the  Department  shall  be  made  available  to  the  General
17    Assembly and the Governor upon request, and  a  final  report
18    shall  be  submitted  upon completion. These reports shall be
19    available to the public upon request.
20        Section 99.  Effective date.  This Act takes effect  upon
21    becoming law.".

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