Authorizes the offering of the twelve month work exemption to certain parents or relatives in receipt of public assistance who personally provide child care.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1805A
SPONSOR: Titus (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to the twelve month work exemption for certain parents or relatives
providing child care
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this legislation is to allow commissioners in social
services to modify the public assistance work requirements in order to
increase access to affordable child care for eligible families.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill would amend subdivision 2 of section 410-x of the social
services law. Currently, New York State allows certain exemptions from
work activities for recipients of temporary assistance that are a
single-parent head of household. The current work exemption structure
allows a single-parent who is caring for a child under the age, of one
an exemption from work activities for no more than three months for any
one child; although a social service official has the authority to
extend :the exemption for up to 12 months on a case by case basis.
This bill would allow commissioners of social service districts the
ability to offer an 12 month for exemption if the district is unable to
meet the needs of income eligible working families.
JUSTIFICATION:
Counties are required by law to provide child care payments for public
assistance recipients if such care is necessary in order for the recipi-
ent to participate in mandatory work requirements. The funding source
for these county payments is the New York State Child Care Block Grant
(NYSCCBG.) The NYSCCBG has suffered serious cuts in the past few years
leaving counties with barely enough funds to fulfill the obligation of
child care to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients (TANF)
and very little, if anything, left over to provide child care subsidies
for low income working families.
Most counties are no longer able to serve families up to 200% Federal
Poverty Level due to cuts to the child care block grant. In order to
deal with the shortage of child care funds, counties have lowered eligi-
bility levels, ceased taking new applications for a period of time or
have discontinued the acceptance of new applications all together.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.6839A (2013-2014) Passed assembly; delivered to senate; REFERRED TO
SOCIAL SERVICES 03/05/14
A.6839 (2013-2014) Amend and recommit to Social Services 02/28/14
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1805--A
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 13, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. TITUS, NOLAN, LUPARDO, RUSSELL, MOSLEY, BRONSON,
WALKER, OTIS -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BRAUNSTEIN, DAVILA,
FAHY, JAFFEE, LAVINE, PERRY, ROBINSON, SEPULVEDA, SOLAGES, STECK,
WEINSTEIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Social
Services -- ordered to a third reading -- recommitted to the Committee
on Social Services in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to the twelve month
work exemption for certain parents or relatives providing child care
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 410-x of the social services law,
2 as amended by chapter 416 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 2. (a) A social services district may establish priorities for the
5 families which will be eligible to receive funding; provided that the
6 priorities provide that eligible families will receive equitable access
7 to child care assistance funds to the extent that these funds are avail-
8 able.
9 (b) A social services district shall set forth its priorities for
10 child care assistance in the district's consolidated services plan. The
11 commissioner of the office of children and family services shall not
12 approve any plan that does not provide for equitable access to child
13 care assistance funds.
14 (c) A social services district shall be authorized to set aside
15 portions of its block grant allocation to serve one or more of its
16 priority groups and/or to discontinue funding to families with lower
17 priorities in order to serve families with higher priorities; provided
18 that the method of disbursement to priority groups provides that eligi-
19 ble families within a priority group will receive equitable access to
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06623-04-6
A. 1805--A 2
1 child care assistance funds to the extent that these funds are avail-
2 able.
3 (d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the
4 commissioner in any social services district that does not have suffi-
5 cient funding to serve all eligible working families under two hundred
6 percent of the state income standard, shall offer the twelve month work
7 exemption provided in paragraph (d) of subdivision one of section three
8 hundred thirty-two of this chapter, to all parents or other relatives in
9 receipt of public assistance who are personally providing care for a
10 child under one year of age regardless of whether such parent or other
11 relative has previously been offered an exemption under such section
12 three hundred thirty-two. This section shall not apply to individuals
13 who:
14 (i) solely participate in work activities that provide earned income;
15 or
16 (ii) participate in a combination of work activities; for the portion
17 of work activities that provide earned income.
18 (e) In the event that a social services district must discontinue
19 funding to a priority group it shall notify the office of children and
20 family services within ten days of such action, identifying the partic-
21 ular group affected. In the event that funding is restored, the social
22 services district shall notify the office of children and family
23 services within ten days of such restoration.
24 (f) Each social services district shall collect and submit to the
25 commissioner of the office of children and family services in a manner
26 to be specified by the commissioner of the office of children and family
27 services information concerning the disbursement of child care assist-
28 ance funds showing geographic distribution of children receiving assist-
29 ance within the district, the number of working families who were other-
30 wise eligible for child care assistance but who were denied because the
31 district lacked sufficient funding to serve all eligible families and
32 the number and age of children who could not be served as a result.
33 [(e)] (g) The commissioner of the office of children and family
34 services shall submit a report to the governor, temporary president of
35 the senate and the speaker of the assembly on or before August thirty-
36 first[, two thousand one] of every year concerning the implementation of
37 this section. This report shall include information concerning the
38 disbursement of child care assistance funds showing geographic distrib-
39 ution of children receiving assistance within the state. Beginning
40 August thirty-first, one year after the chapter of the laws of two thou-
41 sand sixteen that amended this subdivision shall take effect, and each
42 subsequent report thereafter, such report shall also:
43 (i) identify the counties that have discontinued or restored funding
44 to priority groups, as set forth in subdivision (e) of this section;
45 (ii) list the priority groups affected;
46 (iii) provide for each county for each of the twelve months covered by
47 this report the number of working families who were otherwise eligible
48 for child care assistance but who were denied because the district
49 lacked sufficient funding to serve all eligible families; and
50 (iv) the number and age of children who could not be served as a
51 result.
52 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
