How State Policy Shapes Safety Net Access and Well-Being for People with Disabilities

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Many people with disabilities rely on safety net programs, yet their access to and use of these supports varies significantly across states. As the federal government begins to take a step back from social policy, state-level decisions are becoming increasingly consequential for how people with disabilities access public supports. Administrative burden, state-federal program interactions and implementation, and participant characteristics can all have important implications for program access. This panel brings together four empirical studies that examine how state and federal variation in policy adoption and implementation shapes outcomes for people with disabilities across the safety net, highlighting programs impacting food security, health care access, housing quality, and child welfare.
The first paper (Kim) examines the Combined Application Project (CAP), a streamlined SNAP enrollment system for SSI recipients adopted by only 17 states. Using Current Population Survey data and a difference-in-differences approach, Kim estimates whether SSI recipients in CAP states achieve greater SNAP participation and food security — a clear case of consequential state-level variation in administrative design.
The second paper (Rennane) investigates how Ohio's automatic Medicaid enrollment for child SSI recipients affected participation and health care utilization compared to non-adopting states. She finds that prior administrative burdens screened out lower-need but still medically significant children, demonstrating how state enrollment policy choices shape who accesses care. The study illuminates how state-level policy choices about enrollment processes shape who accesses care and how much.The third paper (Brucker) uses the 2023 American Housing Survey to examine federal rental housing assistance for disability households. While assistance reduces cost burden, it does not improve health or housing quality outcomes — highlighting the limits of federal housing policy and the need for complementary state and local action.The fourth paper (Fernandes Prabhu) examines whether the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act reduced congregate care placements for children with disabilities. Preliminary findings suggest state demographic and economic conditions significantly moderate the law's effectiveness, underscoring that federal reform does not translate uniformly across states.Together, these papers demonstrate that systematic variation in how states design and administer policies underpinning safety net programs can produce unequal outcomes - but also, these factors have the power to reduce inequities. At a moment when federal authority is receding, this panel underscores the urgency of understanding state policy context as a primary driver of safety net access and participation outcomes for people with disabilities.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Chair

• Jennifer Renee Daniels, Morgan State University

Discussants

• Jonathan Schwabish, Urban Institute

• Na Yin, Baruch College (City University of New York)

Organizer

• Stephanie Rennane, RAND Corporation

Individual Presentations

• Effects of the CAP system on SSI recipients: Program participation and food security - Presenting Author: Hyun Ju Kim, University of New Hampshire

• Administrative Burden and Targeting: Evidence from SSI-Medicaid Automatic Enrollment for Children with Disabilities - Presenting Author: Stephanie Rennane, RAND Corporation

• The Association of Federal Rental Housing Assistance with Key Outcomes for Disability Households - Presenting Author: Debra Brucker, University of New Hampshire

• Effects of Child Welfare Policy Reform on Family for Children with Disabilities - Presenting Author: Amrith Fernandes Prabhu, University of Massachusetts at Boston