On October 13, 1988, President Reagan signed the Family Support Act (P.L. 100-485) into law at a ceremony in the White House rose garden. his remarks, the president portrayed the act as bringing a message of hope to parents who are poor - that there is an alternative to life on welfare. Like many others, the president viewed the act as landmark legislation that would bring about a major redirection of the welfare system (Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 1988). The act was also viewed as constituting a new social contract between government and welfare recipients. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) (1990), a chief architect of the legislation, noted, In the act, Congress laid down a set of mutual obligations. Society owed single mothers support while they acquired the means of self-sufficiency; mothers owed the society the effort to become self-sufficient (p. C1). To foster the economic self-sufficiency of welfare recipients, the act authorized increased child support enforcement and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) program, a welfare employment program that provides education, training, and employment services. Although accompanied by high expectations, the act was not a radical departure from previous Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) legislation; rather, it consolidated and extended earlier legislation that provided child support enforcement and authorized state welfare-to-work initiatives for AFDC mothers. These initiatives were first introduced under the Work Incentive program in 1967 and were altered significantly under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (P.L. 97-35). New under the Family Support Act of 1988 was a recognition that all parents, regardless of income, have an obligation to financially support their children. For AFDC mothers, the legislation sent a message that even mothers with preschool children are expected to work if child care is available. Subject to the availability of state resources for the JOBS program, all AFDC recipients are required to participate if child care is available unless they are exempt (because of illness, incapacity, or other specific reason) or the JOBS program is not available in their political subdivision. a significant departure from previous legislation, mothers with children age three or older (or age one or older at state option) are required to participate in the JOBS program if child care is available. Mothers younger than 20 who have not completed high school or its equivalent are required to participate in educational activities regardless of their children's ages. addition to requiring that all states operate Unemployed Parent Program of AFDC, the legislation also introduced targeted services to those at high risk for long-term welfare dependency, provided federal funds for educational services in welfare employment programs, and provided health care and child care benefits during the transition from welfare to work. States must also meet overall participation rates in their JOBS programs; 7 percent of nonexempt clients were required to participate in 1990 and 1991, and 20 percent must participate by 1995. (For further analysis of the Family Support Act of 1988, see Abramovitz, 1988; Chilman, 1992; Gueron, 1987; [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] Gueron & Pauly, 1991; Hagen, 1992; Miller, 1989; Nichols-Casebolt & McClure, 1989; Stoesz & Karger, 1990). Although built on prior legislation as well as state experience in operating welfare employment programs, the JOBS legislation and associated child care provisions have presented a new series of opportunities and challenges to state and local governments as they implement the program. Recognizing the importance of the implementation process, we conducted a three-year, 10-state (Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas) study of JOBS implementation. …