Another Side of Waiver Federalism
Lessons from Federal Youth Workforce Policy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10934591 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ashley Palmer (0000-0003-0007-5945, Texas Christian University), M E Collins (0000-0001-6354-6973, Boston University), Mackenzie R Preston (0009-0007-3141-7748, Texas Christian University), Lauren T Lanehart (Texas Christian University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Publius The Journal of Federalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0048-5950 • E-ISSN: 1747-7107 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/publius/pjaf052 |
| OpenAlex | W4413953381 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
Programmatic waivers—which allow states to bypass federal requirements—play an increasingly important role in US federalism, both enabling significant policy experimentation and inviting political controversy. Yet existing scholarship focuses on large and highly salient programs, potentially limiting our understanding of implementation dynamics. This study, by contrast, examines “small” waivers in a low-salience policy context: the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Youth Program. Content analysis of WIOA Youth waiver requests from 2020–2022 shows states primarily sought to increase services for in-school youth through expanded expenditures or individual training accounts. State and federal political party affiliations did not seem to influence approvals. Waivers were used to address local conditions and perceived youth workforce development needs. Our results suggest that small waivers can function as routine governance tools enabling pragmatic adaptation to local conditions without extensive intergovernmental conflict
Federalism · Political science · Waiver · Workforce · Advanced Causal Inference Techniques · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Covid impacts on U.S. youth workforce system
Early leaving and the Neet agenda across the UK
The Effects of Career and Technical Education
Covid-19 impacts on youth and young adult workforce development programs
The Policy Implementation Process
Waivering as Governance
Economic Inactivity, Not in Employment, Education or Training (Neet) and Scarring
Federal Esea Waivers as Reform Leverage
Money and Mandates
Model State Legislation and Intergovernmental Tensions over the Affordable Care Act, Common Core, and the Second Amendment
The Implementation of Public Policy
Synthesizing the Implementation Literature
Information and Uncertainty in Policy Implementation
Waivers, Federalism, and the Rule of Law
Research on Policy Implementation
Social Constructions of Children and Youth
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |