Consequences of Administrative Burden for Social Safety Nets that Support the Healthy Development of Children

Abstract

Through the lens of administrative burden and ordeals, we investigate challenges that low‐income families face in accessing health and human services critical for their children's healthy development. We employ a mixed methods approach—drawing on administrative data on economically disadvantaged children in Tennessee, publicly available data on resource allocations and expenditures, and data collected in purposive and randomly sampled interviews with public and nonprofit agencies across the state—to analyze the distribution of resources relative to children's needs and provide rich descriptions of the experiences of organizations striving to overcome administrative burdens and support families. We also scrutinize the place‐based resource deserts and environmental contexts of resource gaps and deficiencies in public policies governing the distribution of public resources that exacerbate administrative burdens and inequities in access to public resources. Our insights into the costs imposed on individuals and organizations and how they impede or spill over into other aspects of organizational work point to specific state and local program and policy changes that could be implemented to address resource constraints and alleviate burdens on organizations and poor families.

Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement

“…In February 2021, an interview was conducted online with a staff member of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) who worked in the community after the raid to assist affected families. The November 2019 interviews were conducted as part of a larger research effort to investigate challenges that low‐income families face in accessing health and human services critical for their children's healthy development (Heinrich et al., 2022), and in each interview, the Hamblen County respondents described how the Morristown raid affected children and families. Alternatively, the interview conducted with the TIRRC staff member was specific to the workplace immigration raid and used to gather information that could inform our understanding of its unfolding and potential effects and our methodological approach to analyzing the raid's effects.…”

The Social Determinants of Adverse Childhood Experiences: An Intersectional Analysis of Place, Access to Resources, and Compounding Effects

“…Additionally, changing populations across the state present challenges to families accessing services who oftentimes rely on service providers to assist them in navigating administrative requirements [ 9 , 36 , 37 ]. Population changes have also resulted in increased service needs for certain families; these changes include short- and long-term consequences of drug crises, the increasing number of grandparents and great-grandparents who serve as primary caretakers of their children, and a growing immigrant-origin population, particularly in predominantly White communities.…”

“…We utilized 81 in-depth interviews with health and social service providers in the state of Tennessee to understand how historically excluded populations—that is, low-income families, children exposed to opioids, and children of immigrants—access resources and experience place-based challenges that raise high-risk conditions. Interview participants were at the frontlines of mitigating ACEs, playing a key role in helping families access vital resources and services [ 9 ]. Guided by a process-centered intersectionality framework [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], our grounded theory research design assumed there are various social, political, and economic inequities that perpetuate conditions of oppression among historically excluded children, families, and communities, which permitted a critical understanding of underlying issues that create high-risk environments [ 10 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Using Technology and Iterative Research to Strengthen the Social Safety Net

“…Programs like SNAP and TANF are a last resort used by people experiencing personal crises-loss of housing, divorce, or disability-and especially by those living through multiple setbacks occurring in quick succession (Code for America 2021b). That is, they face abnormally stressful situations; as one safety net agency worker put it, these households are "always in crisis mode" (Heinrich et al 2021). Such is the case for mothers and their children enrolled in WIC.…”