Last Updated: February 10, 2007

1. Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, Child Care Assistance Policies 2005: States Fail to Make up Lost Ground, Families Continue to Lack Critical Supports, National Women's Law Center, September 2005.
2. States may limit the types of programs that are allowable and condition participation on maintaining satisfactory progress or other factors.
   Center for Law and Social Policy, Forty States Likely to Cut Access to Postsecondary Training or Education Under House-Passed Bill, 2002.
3. If the state calculates co-payments based on the cost of care, figure reflects the co-payment for a 4-year-old in licensed, nonaccredited center care at the maximum state payment rate.
   Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, Child Care Assistance Policies 2005: States Fail to Make up Lost Ground, Families Continue to Lack Critical Supports, National Women's Law Center, September 2005.
4. If the state calculates co-payments based on the cost of care, figure reflects the co-payment for a 4-year-old in licensed, nonaccredited center care at the maximum state payment rate.
   Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
5. Nancy Duff Campbell, Joan Entmacher, Amy K. Matsui, Cristina Martin Firvida, and Christie Love, Making Care Less Taxing: Improving State Child and Dependent Care Tax Provisions, National Women's Law Center, 2006; with updates from National Women's Law Center, 2007 Supplement to Making Care Less Taxing, 2006.
6. Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
7. Figure reflects limit under Medicaid plan with highest income eligibility limit for parents, taking into account the value of earnings disregards (which may be time-limited in some cases).
   Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
8. Value reflects comparison of applicant earnings limit for a single parent with 2 children to the highest Medicaid or SCHIP program eligibility limit for children ages 6-19.
   Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
9. Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) are generally barred from federal benefits during their first 5 years as LPRs, unless they entered the U.S. before 8/22/96. Exceptions include refugees and U.S. veterans (and their families). See data source for more details.
   National Immigration Law Center, Guide to Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs, Fourth Edition, 2002; with updates from Update Page, www.nilc.org/pubs/Guide_update.htm (accessed September 6, 2007).
10. States have the option of using federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funds to provide prenatal care to women regardless of immigration status. They can also extend prenatal care to immigrant women using state funds.
    National Immigration Law Center, Guide to Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs, Fourth Edition, 2002; with updates from Update Page, www.nilc.org/pubs/Guide_update.htm (accessed September 6, 2007).
11. Limit may refer to gross or net income depending on the state and includes SCHIP-funded Medicaid expansions, where applicable.
    Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
12. Limit may refer to gross or net income depending on the state.
    Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
13. Massachusetts also provides state-funded coverage to children in families with income up to 400 percent of the poverty level ($66,400 per year for a family of 3). In some cases, family income may exceed this limit.
14. In most states, the base period consists of the first 4 of the 5 most recently completed quarters. Some states allow claimants to use an alternative base period that includes more recent earnings.
    U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workforce Security, Comparison of State UI Laws, 2006, http://www.ows.doleta.gov (accessed July 11, 2007).
15. Rick McHugh and Andrew Stettner, How Much Does Unemployment Insurance for Jobless Part Time Workers Cost?, National Employment Law Project, May 2005, http://www.nelp.org (accessed July 13, 2005).
16. State extends eligibility to persons seeking part-time work only if they have a history of part-time work or meet other limited criteria.
17. A general "good cause" provision extends eligibility to persons who leave their jobs for "personal emergencies" or "compelling circumstances", which should include--among others--child care conflicts, illness, domestic violence, and spousal relocation. Eligibility determinations, however, may vary in practice. States may also specifically recognize certain reasons as "good cause"; for more information see Appendix B in Rebecca Smith, Rick McHugh, Andrew Stettner, and Nancy Segal, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Confronting the Failure of State Unemployment Insurance Systems to Serve Women and Working Families, National Employment Law Project, 2003.
    Rebecca Smith, Rick McHugh, Andrew Stettner, and Nancy Segal, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Confronting the Failure of State Unemployment Insurance Systems to Serve Women and Working Families, National Employment Law Project, July 2003.
18. Gretchen Rowe with Jeffrey Versteeg, The Welfare Rules Databook: State Policies as of July 2005, Assessing the New Federalism, The Urban Institute, 2006.
19. Figure reflects limit for "nonexempt" recipients. The limit for recipients who are exempt from work requirements and time limits due to reasons such as disability, or caring for a child under the age of two is $8,676 per year.
20. Adult lawful permanent residents (LPRs) are generally barred from federal benefits during their first 5 years as LPRs. Exceptions include refugees and U.S. veterans (and their families). See data source for more details.
    National Immigration Law Center, Guide to Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs, Fourth Edition, 2002; with updates from Update Page, http://www.nilc.org (accessed October 28, 2005).
21. This is the minimum wage rate that applies to non-supervisory, non-farm, private sector employment as of July 24, 2007.
    Economic Policy Institute, "Minimum Wage Issue Guide, Table 5," 2007, http://www.epi.org (accessed July 19, 2007).
22. Economic Policy Institute, "Minimum Wage Issue Guide, Table 5," 2007, http://www.epi.org (accessed July 19, 2007).
23. Community Resources Information, Inc., TaxCreditResources.org, http://taxcreditresources.org (accessed March 20, 2007).
24. Calculations include income tax credits that are available to all low-income families in the state, such as state earned income tax credits.
    Jason A. Levitis, The Impact of State Income Taxes on Low-Income Families in 2006, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2007.
26. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workforce Security, Comparison of State UI Laws, 2006, http://www.ows.doleta.gov (accessed July 11, 2007).
27. Andrew Stettner, Rebecca Smith, and Rick McHugh, Changing Workforce, Changing Economy: State Unemployment Insurance Reforms for the 21st Century, National Employment Law Project, 2004.
28. Potential duration is the maximum number of weeks of benefits that a claimant is eligible for under the regular state program. In most states, it is determined based on the amount and distribution of the recipient's earnings in the base period; eight states have a uniform potential duration for all claimants.
    U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workforce Security, Comparison of State UI Laws, 2006, http://www.ows.doleta.gov (accessed July 11, 2007).
29. Figure reflects maximum benefit for "nonexempt" recipients. The maximum benefit for recipients who are exempt from work requirements and time limits due to reasons such as disability or caring for a child under age two is $7,596 per year.
30. A child support pass-through is the amount of collected child support that the state gives to families on whose behalf the child support was collected. A child support disregard is the amount of child support that the family can keep without lowering their TANF benefits.
    Jan Justice, State Policy Re Pass-Through and Disregard of Current Month's Child Support Collected for Families Receiving TANF-Funded Cash Assistance, Center for Law and Social Policy, 2007.
31. If a child is excluded from grant by family cap, then all child support collected is passed through and $90 is disregarded.
32. Community-based IDA programs are operating in all states but often without state support. Also, in some states without state-supported IDA programs, IDA legislation was passed but never implemented due to lack of state funding, or IDA legislation expired, and no new state support was allocated.
    Center for Social Development, Washington University, "Summary Tables: IDA Policy in the States, Table 1," October 2006, http://gwbweb.wustl.edu
33. Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
34. Rule applies to SCHIP-funded Medicaid expansions, where applicable.
    Donna Cohen Ross, Laura Cox and Caryn Marks, Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2007 http://www.kff.org (accessed January 30, 2007).
35. Gretchen Rowe with Jeffrey Versteeg, The Welfare Rules Databook: State Policies as of July 2003, Assessing the New Federalism, The Urban Institute, 2005.
36. Households in which all members receive TANF cash assistance or SSI benefits do not have to meet gross income or asset eligibility criteria. Most states also waive these criteria for recipients of certain other benefits; some states waive these criteria for nearly all applicants.
    Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "States' Vehicle Asset Policies in the Food Stamp Program," November 2006.