Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance

Monitoring the Services Provided to Pregnant and Parenting Teens

As a result of welfare reform legislation, teenage public assistance recipients who are pregnant or who are parents must meet certain residency or education requirements in order to remain eligible for public assistance. Compliance with these requirements is to be verified by the local social services districts. We examined whether the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) effectively monitors the oversight provided by the local districts. We found that OTDA does not know how many public assistance recipients are pregnant or parenting teenagers, and cannot be assured that these teens are meeting their residency and education requirements. We further found that OTDA has not determined the extent to which these teens are meeting the goal of achieving self-sufficiency. We recommend several improvements in the procedures used by OTDA to monitor the status of these public assistance recipients.

For a complete copy of Report 98-S-76 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.