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, 2009 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 and Caryn Marks, Challenges of Providing Health Coverage of Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2009 http://www.kff.org (accessed February 16, 2009).
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 and Caryn Marks, Challenges of Providing Health Coverage of Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2009 http://www.kff.org (accessed February 16, 2009).
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 October 17, 2008).
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 October 17, 2008).
11. Limit includes SCHIP-funded Medicaid expansions, where applicable.
    Donna Cohen Ross and Caryn Marks, Challenges of Providing Health Coverage of Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2009 http://www.kff.org (accessed February 16, 2009).
12. Donna Cohen Ross and Caryn Marks, Challenges of Providing Health Coverage of Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2009 http://www.kff.org (accessed February 16, 2009).
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. 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.
17. Gretchen Rowe with Jeffrey Versteeg, The Welfare Rules Databook: State Policies as of July 2005, Assessing the New Federalism, The Urban Institute, 2006.
18. 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).
19. 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).
20. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division, "Minimum Wage Laws in the States," 2009, http://www.dol.gov (accessed July 20, 2009); additional information from Economic Policy Institute, Minimum Wage Issue Guide, Table 5, 2008, (accessed July 20, 2009).
21. State EITC Online Resource Center, http://www.stateeitc.com (accessed June 3, 2009); with additional information from NCCP.
22. 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 and Andrew C. Nicholas, The Impact of State Income Taxes on Low-Income Families in 2007, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2008. Available at: http://www.cbpp.org (Accessed March 19, 2009).
23. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workforce Security, Comparison of State UI Laws, 2006, http://www.ows.doleta.gov (accessed July 11, 2007).
24. Andrew Stettner, Rebecca Smith, and Rick McHugh, Changing Workforce, Changing Economy: State Unemployment Insurance Reforms for the 21st Century, National Employment Law Project, 2004.
25. 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).
26. 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.
27. 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
28. Rule applies to SCHIP-funded Medicaid expansions, where applicable.
    Donna Cohen Ross and Caryn Marks, Challenges of Providing Health Coverage of Children and Parents in a Recession: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2009, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2009 http://www.kff.org (accessed February 16, 2009).
29. Gretchen Rowe with Jeffrey Versteeg, The Welfare Rules Databook: State Policies as of July 2003, Assessing the New Federalism, The Urban Institute, 2005.
30. 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.