What is a child-only case?
Child-only cases are those cases in which there is no adult in the assistance unit. In some of these cases, there is no parent living with the child, and the caregiver is not legally responsible for his or her care (i.e. kinship care cases). In other cases, a parent is living with the child, but is ineligible for benefits for some reason. In the period September 1996 to June 1997, the last period for which we have national data, 39 percent of child-only cases did not have a parent in the household, and 61 percent did. There is significant variation in this figure from state to state, however, as shown in Table A.
