Author Description

Welfare reform poses significant challenges and opportunities for California communities. To meet this challenge, San Bernardino County's Social Services Group leadership recognized that comprehensive information on the needs of program participants would be required. To help fill the existing knowledge gap, RAND was retained to gather and analyze information on caseload characteristics. This documented briefing summarizes and describes the results of a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the 1997 and 1998 TANF caseloads in San Bernardino County, California. The results are based on analyses of county administrative data on current TANF cases and on survey of current TANF participants. The latest RAND survey of TANF participants in San Bernardino County was conducted between February and March 1999. This survey follows an initial effort, conducted one year earlier, between November and January 1998.