HB2138

Report Title:

Welfare; School Attendance

 

Description:

Requires an unmarried minor parent without a high school diploma who is under age 18 to maintain a 70% attendance record at school to receive TANF assistance.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2138
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to public assistance.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 prohibits a state from using Temporary Aid to Needy Families funds to provide assistance to an individual who is under age eighteen, is unmarried, has a minor child at least twelve weeks old, and who has not successfully completed high school or its equivalent, unless the individual either participates in education activities directed toward attainment of a high school diploma or its equivalent, or participates in an alternative education or training program approved by the state. In Hawaii, the department of human services' first-to-work program monitors school attendance for these individuals. However, the department of education does not have a uniform policy or definition of satisfactory attendance. As a result, for the purposes of determining whether the individual is participating in educational activities, as required by federal law, the first-to-work program must accept the attendance report of the department of education as to satisfactory or unsatisfactory attendance.

The federal law also requires single heads of households who are under age twenty to work at least thirty hours per week to receive assistance. For these individuals, attendance in school may be substituted for or counted as hours of work. In this case, the department of human services is aware of the exact number of hours worked or classes attended.

Therefore, the purpose of this Act is to establish a clear, fair, and quantifiable attendance requirement for minor parents under the age of eighteen who have children but no high school diploma, in order to comply with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

SECTION 2. Chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§346-    Temporary assistance to needy families assistance; minor parent; school attendance. (a) For purposes of complying with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, in order to receive assistance from temporary assistance to needy families funds, an individual who is under age eighteen, is unmarried, has a minor child, and who has not successfully completed high school or its equivalent, shall demonstrate the individual's actual attendance in school at a rate of at least seventy per cent as attested to in attendance reports issued by the department of education to the department of human services, at intervals to be determined by the department of human services.

(b) The department of human services shall identify to the department of education which individuals are subject to this section, and for whom attendance records must be kept. The department of education shall keep records of attendance for individuals identified and provide the department of human services with attendance reports at the request of the department of human services."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________