Exclude all earned income of any child if the child is a full-time student or a part-time student who is not a full-time employee. This includes parents under age 19 who are full-time students in high school or the equivalent vocational or technical school when they apply for or receive as the caretaker of their own children.
For this policy, a student is defined as attending a school, college, or university, or a vocational or technical training school designed to prepare for gainful employment. This includes a participant in the Job Corps program under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Summer vacations do not alter student status. A FULL-TIME student is one whose school schedule equals a full-time course of study in that school. A PART-TIME student is one whose school schedule equals at least one-half of a full-time course of study in that school.
EXCEPTIONS: (1) When determining eligibility in the 185 percent income eligibility limit test, exclude this income for six months in each calendar year of January through December and include thereafter, and (2) for applications (or when adding the child to the MAF group), disregard such income unless the child previously had earnings disregarded under this provision for six months in the same calendar year of January through December. For applications (or adding the child to the MAF group) for which this income cannot be exempted, determine eligibility for assistance based on need by including this income. If the family is eligible for MAF based on need, exclude the income in determining the grant amount for which the family is eligible.
The six months can be any six months of the calendar year of January through December. They do not have to be consecutive. Count only those months in which the income results in ineligibility under the 185 percent income eligibility limit test in determining the six-month period.