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ENGROSSED
SENATE BILL 5798
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Passed
Legislature - 1999 Regular Session
State of Washington 56th
Legislature 1999 Regular Session
By
Read first time 02/09/1999.
Referred to Committee on Labor & Workforce Development.
Assisting
needy families.
AN
ACT Relating to temporary assistance for needy families; amending RCW
74.12.010, 74.12.035, and 74.08A.120; and repealing RCW 74.12.036.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
74.12.010 and 1997 c 59 s 16 are each amended to read as follows:
For
the purposes of the administration of temporary assistance for needy families,
the term "dependent child" means any child in need under the age of
eighteen years who ((has been deprived of parental support or care by reason
of the death, continued absence from the home, or physical or mental incapacity
of the parent, and who)) is living with a relative as specified under
federal temporary assistance for needy families program requirements, in a
place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives as his or their
homes. The term a "dependent child" shall, notwithstanding the foregoing,
also include a child who would meet such requirements except for his removal
from the home of a relative specified above as a result of a judicial
determination that continuation therein would be contrary to the welfare of
such child, for whose placement and care the state department of social and
health services or the county office is responsible, and who has been placed in
a licensed or approved child care institution or foster home as a result of
such determination and who: (1) Was receiving an aid to families with
dependent children grant for the month in which court proceedings leading to
such determination were initiated; or (2) would have received aid to families
with dependent children for such month if application had been made therefor; or
(3) in the case of a child who had been living with a specified relative within
six months prior to the month in which such proceedings were initiated, would
have received aid to families with dependent children for such month if in such
month he had been living with such a relative and application had been made
therefor, as authorized by the Social Security Act((: PROVIDED, That to the
extent authorized by the legislature in the biennial appropriations act and to
the extent that matching funds are available from the federal government,
temporary assistance for needy families assistance shall be available to any
child in need who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of
the unemployment of a parent or stepparent liable under this chapter for
support of the child)).
"Temporary
assistance for needy families" means money payments, services, and
remedial care with respect to a dependent child or dependent children and the
needy parent or relative with whom the child lives ((and may include another
parent or stepparent of the dependent child if living with the parent and if
the child is a dependent child by reason of the physical or mental incapacity
or unemployment of a parent or stepparent liable under this chapter for the
support of such child)).
Sec.
2. RCW
74.12.035 and 1997 c 59 s 18 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
((A family or assistance unit is not eligible for aid for any month if for
that month the total income of the family or assistance unit, without
application of income disregards, exceeds one hundred eighty-five percent of
the state standard of need for a family of the same composition: PROVIDED,
That for the purposes of determining the total income of the family or
assistance unit, the earned income of a dependent child who is a full-time
student for whom temporary assistance for needy families is being provided
shall be disregarded for six months per calendar year.
(2)
Participation in a strike does not constitute good cause to leave or to refuse
to seek or accept employment. Assistance is not payable to a family for any
month in which any caretaker relative with whom the child is living is, on the
last day of the month, participating in a strike. An individual's need shall
not be included in determining the amount of aid payable for any month to a
family or assistance unit if, on the last day of the month, the individual is
participating in a strike.
(3)))
Children over eighteen years of age and under nineteen years of age who are full-time
students reasonably expected to complete a program of secondary school, or the
equivalent level of vocational or technical training, before reaching nineteen
years of age are eligible to receive temporary assistance for needy families:
PROVIDED HOWEVER, That if such students do not successfully complete such
program before reaching nineteen years of age, the assistance rendered under
this subsection during such period shall not be a debt due the state.
(2)
Children with disabilities who are eighteen years of age and under twenty-one
years of age and who are full-time students whose education is being provided
in accordance with RCW 28A.155.020 are eligible to receive temporary assistance
for needy families benefits.
(3)
The department is authorized to grant exceptions to the eligibility
restrictions for children eighteen years of age and under twenty-one years of
age under subsection (1) and (2) of this section only when it determines by
reasonable, objective criteria that such exceptions are likely to enable the
children to complete their high school education, general equivalency diploma
or vocational education.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 3. RCW
74.12.036 and 1997 c 59 s 19 & 1994 c 299 s 11 are each
repealed.
Sec.
4. RCW
74.08A.120 and 1997 c 57 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
The department may establish a food assistance program for ((persons whose
immigrant status meets the eligibility requirements of the federal food stamp
program, but who are no longer eligible solely due to their immigrant status
under P.L. 104-193)) legal immigrants who are ineligible for the federal
food stamp program.
(2)
The rules for the state food assistance program shall follow exactly the rules
of the federal food stamp program except for the provisions pertaining to
immigrant status ((under P.L. 104-193)).
(3)
The benefit under the state food assistance program shall be established by the
legislature in the biennial operating budget.
(4)
The department may enter into a contract with the United States department of
agriculture to use the existing federal food stamp program coupon system for
the purposes of administering the state food assistance program.
(5)
In the event the department is unable to enter into a contract with the United
States department of agriculture, the department may issue vouchers to eligible
households for the purchase of eligible foods at participating retailers.
