Single Workfirst Size Doesn’T Fit All

Cookie cutters satisfy the perfectionist’s soul. Simply roll out the dough, shape a panful of matching hearts or stars, and admire the results. If only human problems could be solved with so much order and symmetry.

WorkFirst, Washington’s welfare reform program, attempts to stamp out neat solutions to the complex issues of poverty. A number of its orderly requirements have worked. During the last year, 23,000 people left the state’s welfare rolls.

But as the state assesses WorkFirst’s results after one year, administrators are discovering the need for greater flexibility under the law, to better shape the program around the needs of real people.

State legislators now must set wise, new guidelines for deciding who may be exempted from WorkFirst. The program’s basic goal, giving people strong incentives and support for succeeding in the work world, remains sound. But its treatment of certain individuals - who simply don’t fit the mold - must be refined.

One group particularly damaged by the rules of WorkFirst has been families of children with severe disabilities.

Imagine tending a child who requires 24-hour care, with feeding tubes, suctioning equipment or a ventilator. Imagine grappling with the mystery and grief of raising a severely autistic child. Now, add the stress of searching for both a job and specialized child care.

Xandra Case cares for her two daughters. Eight-year-old Autumn has a neurological disorder that leaves her unable to speak or to walk. Autumn uses a wheelchair.

Last December, WorkFirst added to this small family’s anguish by requiring Xandra Case to find a job and child care. It turned out that special child care alone would cost the state twice Xandra’s monthly $440 welfare payment.

Case called state Sen. Lisa Brown for help. Brown referred her to the Northwest Justice Project, which saved Case’s welfare benefits, temporarily. In Washington, there’s a five-year clock ticking on everybody’s welfare check, even for mothers of children with severe medical and developmental conditions.

If the health of a society can be measured by its treatment of its most fragile members, how does Washington state measure up? One Spokane mother, distraught that her family could wind up homeless, called every licensed child care center in the city to place her autistic child. Each one told her no. Others fruitlessly search for care for a child with hemophilia or cerebral palsy and feel overwhelmed.

Legislators must find fair and sensible solutions for parents of children with disabilities. When few options for specialized child care exist and the child is better off with her mother, it hardly makes sense to require the parent to take a minimum-wage job.

Washington state must resist the temptation to stamp out cookie-cutter solutions to complex situations. The tidy guidelines of WorkFirst often do succeed. But so does compassion.