This ACL implements AB 1633, which called for guidelines and best practices to get Title II and SSI benefits for disabled foster children, especially those about to age off of Foster Care. Though “not mandatory,” the ACL discusses the “fiscal and programmatic” advantages of foster care youth having income in place when losing foster care. The ACL includes helpful statements like, “disabled youth emancipating .. without …benefits are especially vulnerable to negative outcomes….” The ACL presents suggestions on how to assess and initiate applications, as well as attaching disability definitions and assessment forms. The letter also mentions a persnickety little problem: federal foster care policy “may” prohibit application for SSI until one month prior to terminating foster care (?), but it takes “several months” to qualify (?) which “may” leave a gap. [Download]
Summaries of select CalWORKs, CalFresh, Health and Housing Regulations
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ACL 07-12: Translation Of Food Stamp And CalWORKs Joint Forms Into Eight Additional Languages (3/2/07)
At long last! This ACL implements the settlement in Vu v. CDSS, to provide a total of 12 languages for translation of food stamp information and material. In addition to the 4 languages already translated by the state (Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese), the state now will translate everything related to the food stamp program (and CalWORKs forms when they are combined-use forms with Food Stamps) into Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Farsi, Hmong, Korean, Lao, and Tagalog. A reminder that if the county’s automation can’t handle spitting out translated versions, to use a manual process to issue pre-printed paper ones. [Download]
ACL 07-03: Federal Reauthorization Of TANF (1/12/07)
For the less welfare-nerdy (see ACL 07-05), a summary of the major changes to TANF in light of the federal Deficit Reduction Act and the federal Interim regulations, and California’s response to these changes. And yeah for our clients, this letter also clarifies that despite the changes that have been made to the TANF program at the federal level, the structure of CalWORKs welfare-to-work has not changed. CalWORKs continues to require counties to offer a broad range of employment and education activities, behavioral health services, and other activities necessary to help recipients achieve self-sufficiency. No point summarizing this. Anyone doing CalWORKs work needs to read and memorize this. Pop quiz tomorrow. [Download]
ACL 07-05: County TANF Work Participation Rate Data Reporting (1/17/07)
54 pages of instructions and definitions for counties to do data reporting for the feds. For Uber-welfare nerds who want a handy place for all the federal Welfare to Work defintions, rules on absences from assigned activities, documentation rules, and more. [Download]
ACL 07-02: Duties Of Adoption Service Providers In The Independent Adoptions Program (1/9/07)
Oh those pesky conflicts. This ACL clarifies that, for purposes of a prospective independent adoption, an Adoption Service Provider (ASP) may not both provide the advisement to the birth parent and the preplacement evaluation of the adoptive family. [Download]
ACIN I-01-07: Tribal TANF Questions And Answers (1/9/07)
Info about how Tribal TANF and CalWORKs interact, starting with “how do you start a tribal TANF program?” and going through caseload transfers, “opting out ” of tribal TANF, sanctions (tribal TANF is not required to have or continue CalWORKs sanctions), Welfare to work services, and more. [Download]