Report to Wisconsin Counties on Implementation Surveys

Abstract

In August, 1990 as part of its evaluation of the Wisconsin “Learnfare” experiment for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Employment and Training Institute surveyed the directors of the 72 county departments of social services regarding the implementation of Learnfare in their area. All counties completed the survey. The counties reported that nearly all had staff who attended training sessions on the implementation of the Learnfare policy and about half in turn trained other local county staff. The emphasis for training was upon income maintenance line staff (trained in 67 of the counties) and income maintenance staff supervisors (trained in 58 counties). Only 6 counties reported that their social work staff received in-service training on the implementation of Learnfare. Nearly forty percent of the county officials reported that cooperation had improved between school and county social service staff. As reported by school officials these meetings appeared to focus primarily on methods of collecting student attendance data for the purposes of sanctioning families of teens not enrolled or attending school regularly. A smaller number of counties reported discussing "Children at Risk Programs"