Circumstances may require temporary absence of either the child or the parent (or eligible payee) from the home. Temporary separations do not affect a child’s eligibility for Temporary Assistance as long as the parent or eligible payee retains responsibility for the child’s care, including situations such as the following:
- Hospitalization of the child or parent when return to the home is expected.
- Attendance at school (including out of state) of the parent or child when primarily for obtaining an education or vocational training, and the parent or relative retains full responsibility for the child. Consider children attending school (such as colleges and vocational training schools) away from home as living in the home of the payee if the only reason they are living away from home is to attend school. When living arrangements change so that the child may attend public grade or high school outside the child’s own district, carefully determine who retains responsibility for care and control of the child and in whose home the child lives.
EXCEPTION: Children committed to state schools for the mentally retarded (such as the State School at Marshall), or to schools for delinquent children are not eligible for Temporary Assistance.
When a parent is temporarily absent due to school attendance, follow the same guidelines as Job Corps participants.
- Consider a person attending Job Corps a student. Consider a Job Corps participant temporarily absent from the home for the purpose of attending school. In each case, discuss the situation with the family. This is especially true when the Temporary Assistance parent is the Job Corps participant. The parent has several options, depending on the family’s situation.
- The parent can be the payee for himself/herself and the child.
EXAMPLE: The parent arranged for another relative to care for the child in his/her absence. The parent maintains contact with the child and provides for the child’s needs.
- Another relative can be the payee for the child.
EXAMPLE: The relative caring for the child is assuming responsibility for the child’s needs. The parent will not have much contact or provide for the child’s needs while participating in Job Corps.
- Another relative can be payee for himself/herself and the child.
EXAMPLE: Another relative is assuming responsibility for the Job Corps participant’s and the child’s needs. The parent is dependent upon this relative for his/her needs as well as the child’s needs.
Assess the family’s situation to determine which option best fits the family’s circumstances.
- The parent can be the payee for himself/herself and the child.
- Stays at regional diagnostic centers for evaluation and/or treatment when contact (caretaker-child relationship) is maintained between the caretaker payee and child. Stays not exceeding 90 days are generally of this nature. Carefully evaluate stays exceeding 90 days to determine if contact is maintained between the child and family.
- Visits out of state or in the state of the child or parent that are temporary not to exceed 90 days. During this period, the payee and/or child continue to receive assistance if otherwise eligible (this includes visits of a child in state or out of state with the absent parent). 13 CSR 40-2.365(1)(A) prohibits payment of Temporary Assistance on behalf of children who are expected by the parent or other caretaker to be absent from the home for more than 90 days. 13 CSR 40-2.365(1)(B) prohibits payment of Temporary Assistance to a parent or other caretaker who receives benefits for a child and fails to inform the Family Support Division of the child’s absence by the end of a five day period that begins with the date it becomes clear to the parent or other caretaker that the child will be absent for more than 90 days.