Department of Human Services: Chapter 4: Section 4.4

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TANF

Dependent 16- and 17-year-old children who do not have a high school diploma or a GED certificate must be enrolled in an elementary or secondary school, vocational, or technical training program in order to be eligible for TANF. If the child already has a high school diploma or a GED certificate, s/he is eligible for TANF as long as s/he is under 18.

The child must be enrolled in school full-time unless one of the following exemptions apply:

only part-time attendance is necessary to receive a diploma,
the remaining portion of the day is spent in a work study or similar program, or
a situation of incapacitation exists.

If a dependent 16 or 17-year-old fails to comply with this requirement, his/her needs will be removed from the grant.

A child is a full-time student if s/he is enrolled in:

a public school or a licensed private school and the program calls for at least 20 hours of classroom or vocational training a week;
a junior college, college, or university and is carrying at least eight semester or quarter hours; or
a training program which:
- is designed to prepare the student for gainful employment,
- issues a certificate or diploma upon successful completion of the program, and
- calls for attendance of at least 20 hours per week.

The Job Corps is such a training program.

A child is a part-time student if s/he is enrolled in:

a public school or a licensed private school and the program calls for at least six but under 20 hours of classroom or vocational training a week;
a junior college, college, or university and is carrying at least four but under eight semester or quarter hours; or
a training program which:
- is designed to prepare the student for gainful employment,
- issues a certificate or diploma upon successful completion of the program, and
- calls for attendance of at least six but under 20 hours per week.

'Enrolled in' means that the particular school or training program considers the child to be a current student. The enrollment status continues:

during the summer (through September) if the child was enrolled when school was dismissed for the summer break, and
until the IMA worker determines that a child is no longer enrolled.

Example

A school drops a child from its enrollment list in November due to non-attendance. The SSR is notified in January that the child is no longer enrolled. The SSR should consider the child to be a student through January. No overpayment is charged.

Dependent 18-year-olds included in the TANF group must be enrolled in and physically attending secondary school or a training program, provided s/he reasonably expects to graduate (or complete the training program) before his/her 19th birthday. An 18-year-old who has already graduated from high school is ineligible for TANF assistance as a dependent child. The 18-year-old must be enrolled full-time unless:

only part-time attendance is necessary to receive a diploma,
the remaining portion of the day is spent in a work study or similar program, or
a situation of incapacitation exists.

Full-time enrollment is defined in the same manner as for 16- and 17-year-olds above.

The 18-year-old student becomes ineligible for TANF assistance as a dependent child if s/he is no longer physically attending unless s/he is not attending but:

has definite plans to resume his/her attendance within 30 days , or
is not currently attending due to:
- illness of limited duration,
- family emergency of limited duration,
- school suspension, or
- house arrest.

See TANF

Attending 'institutions of higher learning' (see definition below) may affect a person's eligibility. Unless categorically eligible for FS (groups in which all members receive TANF and/or SSI; see Chapter 12: Categorical Eligibility in this Part), post-secondary students must meet at least one of the following criteria to be eligible:

under age 18 or over age 49;
physically or mentally unable to work;
employed and paid for at least 20 hours per week or self-employed for a minimum of 20 hours per week and paid the equivalent of working at least 20 hours per week at the federal minimum hourly wage (this includes on-the-job training, internships, and apprenticeships);
participating in a state or federally-financed work study program (the exemption begins the date the person is approved for work study or the beginning of the school year, whichever is later, and continues over the period the work study is intended to cover, unless the student rejects or refuses a work study assignment);
responsible for the physical care of a dependent household member under age six;
responsible for the physical care of a dependent household member ages six through 11
when adequate child care is not available;
a single parent attending an institution of higher education full-time with responsibility for a child under 12; or
assigned to an institution of higher education through a program under the JTPA, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), Trade Readjustment Assistance (TRA), or FSET.

If a person is enrolled in a post-secondary program which contains both a classroom and a training component, the person is not considered a student when participating in the training component. When the person is attending classes, however, s/he is considered a student and is ineligible for the program unless one of the exemption criteria is met.

All other students are ineligible for FS unless they receive TANF and/or SSI. TANF and SSI recipients may attend post-secondary institutions even if they are part of a Food Stamp unit that includes individuals who do not receive TANF or SSI.

'Institution of higher education' means any institution which normally requires a high school diploma or equivalency certificate for enrollment, including but not limited to colleges, universities, and vocational or technical schools at the post-high school level.

The enrollment status of a student will begin on the first day of the school term of the institution of higher education. Such enrollment will be deemed to continue through normal periods of class attendance, vacation, and recess unless the student graduates, is suspended or expelled, drops out, or does not intend to register for the next normal school term (excluding summer school).

Residents of institutions are not eligible for program participation. Dormitories are considered institutions if they provide students the majority of their meals and the dormitory is not authorized to accept EBT cards.

If a student can demonstrate that the dormitory does not provide him/her a majority of his/her meals, the student may participate if otherwise eligible; if the dormitory has separate room/board contracts and the student only enters into a 'room' contract, the student would not be considered a resident of an institution.