Incentive Program for Teenage Parents on Welfare Evaluated

Ohio counties have made "great progress" in implementing an unusual program that offers financial incentives to keep teenage parents who are on welfare in school, a new study contends.

The study, to be released this week by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, examines the first 18 months of the Learning, Earning, and Parenting, or in LEAP, program. The statewide initiative gives monthly bonuses to teenage parents who attend school regularly and reduces their welfare grants if they do not.

Launched by the Ohio Department of Human Services in 1989, LEAP also offers child-care and transportation assistance and case-management services to help...