Under the Social Security Act, federal funds are available to all states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands for strengthening and improving programs of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Under the 1972 amendments such funds continue to be available to Guam and to the Virgin Islands for programs of old-age assistance, aid to the blind, and aid to the permanently and totally disabled, and to Puerto Rico for its single category of aid to the aged, blind or disabled. In the other states assistance to needy eligible aged, blind, or disabled persons is available through the federal program of Supplemental Security Income, which went into operation January 1, 1974. This publication reports on the state public assistance plans of the fifty states and four other jurisdictions which were approved and in effect October 1, 1980. Information for each state is presented in four subdivisions: administration, eligibility requirements, need determination, and extension of the program. In addition, tables list the titles of the state agencies, give the dates on which each of the programs was begun, and explain the formula for federal financial participation in grants to the states. Three special tables related to the states' standards of assistance are also provided. (Author/MP)