Used in Social Welfare Policies and Services

Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Federal legislation that provided funds for child welfare, families adopting special needs children; also specified planning for children in foster care, procedures for Termination of Parental Rights.

AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children). The federal-state welfare program started in the Social Security Act of 1935 and replaced by TANF programs in 1996.

Affirmative Action. Programs designed to redress past or present discrimination against minorities and women through criteria for employment, promotion and educational opportunities. Preferential treatment or access can be a part of affirmative action.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Extended to those with disabilities civil rights similar to those available on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, and religion thought the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

BadgerCare. Wisconsin’s program for providing health insurance to low-income uninsured working families with children under the age of 19 (see CHIPS).

Block Grant. A method of funding social programs by which the federal government makes monies available to the states for a wide variety of services, including block grants. Block grants usually allow states more flexibility by reducing federal program regulations. Block grants are usually fixed in terms of the amount of money available.

Budget bill. In Wisconsin, the bill that sets the budget for the next biennium (two-year period). Often has policy items unrelated to the budget.

Categorical Grant. A method of funding social services in which the federal or state government makes monies available for narrowly defined purposes. Often money is allocated on a competitive basis, so some communities receive funding, others do not.

Chapter 48 (Wisconsin Statutes). The Children’s Code. Child welfare legislation, including child abuse.

Chapter 51 (Wisconsin statutes). State Alcohol, Drug Abuse, Developmental Disabilities
And Mental Health Act-- especially patient rights and commitment of individuals when suicidal.

Chapter 55 (Wisconsin statutes). Covers legally incompetent older adults, those with chronic mental illness, cognitive disabilities, and other developmental/physical disabilities who are in need of protective services.

Chapter 938 (Wisconsin statutes). Juvenile Justice Code. Juvenile delinquency laws.

CHIPS. Two meanings: Children in Need of Protection and Services, a designation by the courts that children should be served by child welfare departments in Wisconsin and the Child Health Insurance Programs for working poor families (BadgerCare in Wisconsin).

Civil Rights Act of 1964. Established civil rights available on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, and religion; members of those groups who believed that they were discriminated against had the legal right to file complaints or sue.

Community Action Programs. Remnants of the Great Society programs in the 1960s, they are usually multi-county non-profit organizations that provide weatherizations services, often coordinate funding for coordinated services.

Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs). Adjustments designed to keep income maintenance and social insurance benefits in line with inflation. COLAs affect Social Security and SSI payments.

Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The organization that accredits social work programs in colleges and universities. Students graduating from accredited programs are eligible for certification/licensure as social workers.

Deinstitutionalization. Term used to describe the removal, in the late 1960s, of many mentally ill or mentally retarded patients from state institutions and their placement in community settings.

Earned Income Tax Credits. A federal program that benefits qualified working low-income families and single people in that they can receive a rebate from the federal government that exceeds the taxes they paid.

Emergency Assistance Funds. Special needs payments that can be made under W-2/TANF for homelessness prevention, to prevent utility cutoff.

Entitlements. Governmental resources (cash or in-kind) to which certain groups are entitled, either through means tests or diagnostic differentiation. Entitlement programs have open-ended resource commitments, so recipients are assured of the benefits regardless of government resource constraints.

Food Stamps. The federal in-kind program, started in 1964, that provides (through coupons or electronic transfers) benefits to low-income and disabled individuals to purchase food.

General Assistance. State or locally run programs designed to provide basic benefits to low-income people who are ineligible for federally funded public assistance programs.

Great Society. Also referred to as the War on Poverty. The social welfare programs initiated by President Lyndon Johnson in the years 1963-68. They included Medicaid and Medicare, Head Start, the Community Action Programs, Model Cities, and health prevention programs.

Head Start. A federal preschool program for poor children started in 1964, Head Start offers health screening, socialization, and parent involvement as well as preparing children for school.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). Membership organizations in which consumers pay a monthly fee and receive comprehensive medical care, either free or with a co-payment. Freedom to choose medical providers is restricted.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The federal department that oversees housing and homelessness programs.

Income Maintenance Programs. Social welfare programs designed to contribute to or supplement the income of an individual or family. Usually means-tested, dependent on need.

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. Legislation that restored child placement decisions to the individual tribes.

In-kind. Non-cash goods or services provided by the government that can be used for specific purposes in place of cash—Food Stamps, housing vouchers are examples.

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Plan (LIHEAP). Federal program for helping low-income individuals with utility payments.

Managed care. A loose umbrella term for the organizations of networks of health care providers (hospitals, health clinics, doctors) into a system that is more cost-efficient. Patients pay a monthly fee rather than fee for service. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are an example of this.

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The law that provides funding for homeless services, administered through the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Dept., which provides block grants to the states, which administer categorical grants.

Means test. Income and/or assets tests designed to determine whether an individual or household meets the economic criteria (poor enough) necessary to receive governmental benefits or services.

Medical Assistance. The term used in Wisconsin for Medicaid, or Title IX (of the Social Security Act.

Medicare. The federal program that provides health care for persons over 65 and those with Social Security Disability.

Medicaid. The federal-state program that provides funding for health care to poor families with children, those on SSI, and the aged poor.

Medigap. Private health insurance plans that supplement Medicare plans by paying for some costs not covered by Medicare.

New Deal. The name given to the massive Depression-era social and economic programs initiated during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.

National Association of Social Workers (NASW). National membership organization that that establishes professional standards of practice (Code of Ethics), promotes professional development of members, publishes journals and books, and advocates for both national social welfare issues and the social work profession.

Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). The federal agency that was given the responsibility for designing and administering the War of Poverty/Great Society programs of the 1960s. No longer in existence, but the Community Action Agencies are one legacy. Other programs, such as Head Start, are now in other departments.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PRWORA). A comprehensive act that created the TANF program, limited benefits to both legal and illegal immigrants, changed the qualifications for SSI, and withdrew entitlement to pubic assistance for families with children.

Poverty line. A yearly cash income threshold (based on family size) set by the U.S. government to determine if an individual/family can be classified as poor. Poverty line and multipliers of it (150% of poverty line) used in means test determinations.

Primary prevention. Efforts designed to eliminate the causes of social problems.

Quest Card. An electronic benefits transfer card (debit card) used in Wisconsin for Food Stamps

Scattered Site Housing. Public housing which is not concentrated in an area.

Section Eight Housing. A federal housing subsidy, administered by local housing authorities, in which low-income individuals get a certificate which, if a landlord accepts it, reduces the rent to 30-35% of the person’s income.

Secondary prevention. Early detection and prevention to keep problems from getting worse; also, working with individuals already identified as at-risk (family planning for teenage moms to prevent further pregnancy is an example)

SeniorCare. Wisconsin's Prescription Drug Assistance Program for Wisconsin residents who are 65 years of age or older and who meet eligibility requirements.

Social Insurance. Government-based insurance programs in which individuals or their employers pay into funds which can be used as needed. Examples are Social Security (amount paid out based on previous contributions to the system), unemployment compensation, workers compensation.

Social Security Act of 1935. The most comprehensive piece of social welfare policy. Established Social Security, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and AFDC.

Social Security (OASDHI). The federal retirement system. Workers receive benefits at 62 or 65 based on contributions and numbers of years paying into the system.

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). See WIC.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The replacement for AFDC in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). States design programs, all with a five year lifetime limit on benefits and strict work requirements. W-2 is Wisconsin’s TANF program.

Unfunded mandate. A legal requirement from one level of government to another (federal to state, state to local) that services or benefits be provided, but no funding to carry this out is provided.

Termination of Parental Rights. A legal process in which parents either voluntarily give up their rights or a court terminates them, so that a child/children in foster care is eligible for adoption.

War on Poverty. (see Great Society).

WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). Started in 1972, the federal program that provides money to states to 1) provide nutritious foods to pregnant low-income women and their young children; 2) to educate mothers on good nutrition.

Wisconsin Works (W-2). The TANF program in Wisconsin. From 1997-2001, a higher percentage of welfare recipients left W-2 in Wisconsin than any other state.

Workfare. A system in which public assistance recipients are required to either work in the private sector or a public (unpaid) job in order to receive benefits.