Many of these obstacles to college exist in Washington State, as they do throughout the country. State welfare reform,
called Work First, was passed in early 1997 and became effective in August 1997. The law allowed a welfare recipient
to continue in a college program through June 1998 if the recipient's work plan included the program and the plan had
been approved by November 1997. In practice, students who did not finish by June 1998 have been allowed to continue
in college, although they must meet the 20-hour work requirement and are not given child care assistance for class time.
Work-study positions are counted as work effort, but unpaid internships are not. (In a special concession, the state
counts 16 hours of work study as equivalent to 20 hours of work necessary to meet the participation requirement.) These
are the same conditions that apply to welfare recipients who do not have a college program in their plan. Welfare
students who do not meet the 20-hour work rule are subject to the same penalty as anyone else, typically a 40 percent
reduction in their normal grant. As a general rule, no new plans that include a two- or four-year degree program will be
approved