Senate Bill No. 389
(By Senators Wiedebusch and Manchin)
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[Introduced February 16, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend chapter nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article nine, relating to
restructuring the public assistance programs of West
Virginia; findings and declarations; purpose of aid;
definitions; authorization for restructuring; obligation to
fully fund services; child support payments; case
management; individualized plans; coordinated services;
required services for participating families; eligibility
and benefit levels; work requirements; exemptions;
sanctions; notice and appeal; evaluation and reporting;
administrative improvements; and expiration.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto
a new article, designated article nine, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. INDIVIDUALIZED SELF-SUFFICIENCY PLANNING ACT OF 1995.
§9-9-1. Findings and declarations.
West Virginia's primary public assistance programs are
medical assistance ("Medicaid"), aid to families with dependent
children ("AFDC"), and food stamps. In connection with these
programs, the Legislature finds that:
(1) The current public assistance system does not address
the basic problems faced by West Virginians living in poverty.
It contains several barriers that prevent the aid to families
with dependent children (AFDC) program from being the
transitional support program that most people, including those
who receive AFDC, believe it should be. The system contributes
to generational poverty and the need for long-term assistance
because it actively discourages self-sufficiency.
(2) The current public assistance system does not allow all
recipients who wish to hold a job to obtain adequate case
management, health care, transportation, child care, education,
and job training. The critical elements of restructuring the
current public assistance system from one that encourages
dependency to one that develops self-sufficiency are: Rigorous
child support collection from noncustodial parents; more
intensive, individualized case management by the division of
human services; appropriate training, education, child care, and
transportation; plus the opportunity and obligation to hold a job
for those who are physically and emotionally able.
(3) The AFDC program as currently structured does not deal
adequately with the needs of pregnant minors and minor parents
and their children.
(4) West Virginia's many excellent community-based programs
are not as well utilized or integrated with the public assistance
system as they can and should be.
(5) Public assistance policies tend to erode rather than
support family units. A number of federal public assistance
regulations and state laws tend to discourage marriage or
encourage the separation of parents in a two-parent family. This
encourages family members to remain unemployed or the head of
household to leave the family. Public assistance programs are
insensitive to individual family circumstances and needs, in part
because they offer income maintenance to eligible families
according to uniform rules, providing little latitude to address
families' unique situations.
(6) The public assistance and child support system fails to
provide programs which increase the employment potential of
noncustodial parents. This failure directly contributes to the
economic and social problems of custodial parents.
(7) Parents who are emotionally and physically able, and
their children, can best be assisted in making a successful
transition from public assistance to self-sufficiency when
programs offer a range of self-development, training, and
vocational options, and provide services on an individual basis.
(8) An effective workforce education and training system is
necessary for high-skill, high-wage jobs in the twenty-first
century. These are the jobs that are needed to restore vitality
to the West Virginia economy and for the United States and West
Virginia to become competitive in the world economy.
(9) West Virginia is currently spending large amounts of
state and federal funds on workforce education and training. In
many respects, however, West Virginia does not have an effective,
coordinated system of workforce training and education that meets
the needs of both employers and individuals.
(10) Higher education, state government, and private
employers must share responsibility for providing quality
workforce education and training.
(11) By using the federal waiver authority available under
the Social Security Act and the Food Stamp Act of 1977, West
Virginia has a unique opportunity to compare ways in which its
aid to families with dependent children program can be most
effectively restructured.
§9-9-2. Purpose of aid.
(a) The system of aid and services to families with
dependent children shall recognize clearly defined reciprocal
responsibilities and obligations on the part of both parents and
government.
(b) The goals of aid on behalf of dependent children are:
(1) To assist families to obtain the opportunities and skills necessary for self-sufficiency.
(2) To encourage economic independence by removing barriers
and disincentives to work and providing positive incentives to
work.
(3) To support parental nurturing.
(4) To support parental responsibility, both custodial and
noncustodial.
(5) To encourage and assist individuals and families to
contribute materially to their own self-sufficiency whenever
practicable.
(6) To recognize that families have differing personal
characteristics and experiences by providing services that
address their individual needs.
§9-9-3. Definitions.
For purposes of this article, unless the context otherwise
clearly requires:
(1) "Participating family" means a family that receives aid
to families with dependent children under the restructured
system, including services and requirements, authorized by this
article.
(2) "Control group" means a family that receives aid to
families with dependent children in accordance with the laws and
regulations in effect when this article becomes effective.
(3) "Intensive case management" shall mean services provided
by a case management specialist whose caseload does not exceed sixty.
(4) "Subsidized job" means a job with a public or nonprofit
employer for which at least fifty percent of the wages are
provided by diversion of AFDC funds.
(5) "Secretary" means the secretary of the department of
health and human resources.
§9-9-4. Authorization for public assistance restructuring.
(a) The secretary of the department of health and human
services is directed to restructure the system of aid to families
with dependent children in accordance with the provisions of this
article. The restructuring shall be carried out on a statewide
basis.
(b) The secretary shall seek any federal waivers and shall
implement any federal options that are necessary to public
assistance restructuring.
(c) The secretary shall ensure that representatives of
families receiving AFDC, representatives of community agencies,
and representatives of the division of human services staff play
an active role in the planning, implementation and evaluation of
public assistance restructuring.
(d) The secretary shall submit an alternative proposal to
the Legislature if the federal waiver requests authorized by this
article are not approved, or do not provide the mechanisms
necessary to successfully implement public assistance
restructuring. If an alternative proposal is to be submitted, representatives of families receiving AFDC, community agencies,
and division staff shall also play an active role in the
preparation of that proposal.
§9-9-5. Obligation to fully fund services.
(a) The program of public assistance restructuring
authorized by this article is dependent upon the capacity of the
division of human services to provide intensive case management
services, training and educational services and an array of
family support services in accordance with individualized family
development plans. In any fiscal year when moneys appropriated
are not sufficient to provide to any parent all case management
required by this article and all family support services called
for in their family development plan, that parent's work
requirement as described in section ten of this article shall be
deferred.
(b) Funds appropriated to subsidize child care shall not be
used to offset the cost of providing additional child care
services to families participating in public assistance
restructuring, including families participating in education or
training programs and families receiving transitional child care
support pursuant to this article.
(c) The secretary shall design the public assistance
restructuring program within available funds so that it provides
full services to participating families and so that the current
service level continues to be provided to any control group. Additional participating families shall be accepted only if
appropriated funds are sufficient to provide the full range of
services to families already participating.
§9-9-6. Child support payments.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the
contrary, the commissioner of human services or his or her
designee shall pay directly to families receiving AFDC and
participating in the restructuring authorized by this article,
any child support collected on their behalf. Support income in
excess of the federally-set exclusion shall be used to reduce
AFDC. Court-ordered child support paid to the child advocate's
office within any calendar month shall be disbursed to the family
within thirty-one days of the end of that month, simultaneously
with a supplementary AFDC payment corresponding to the applicable
AFDC payment standard. An AFDC case shall not be closed until
child support payments have exceeded the AFDC payment standard
for twelve consecutive calendar months.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if aid to a
family participating in the restructuring authorized by this
article is terminated due to receipt of child support in excess
of the AFDC payment standard, and the family again becomes
eligible for aid within the following twelve calendar months
solely because the family no longer receives excess child
support, aid shall be paid as of the date of the parent's
reapplication.
(c) If federal funds and authority are available, the
secretary shall design and propose a child support assurance
demonstration program, subject to the planning and participation
requirements of subsection (c) of section four of this article.
(d) The secretary shall submit to the Legislature on or
before the first day of December, 1995, with the assistance of
the director of the child advocate office, the commissioner of
the division of corrections, and the commissioner of the bureau
of employment programs, a proposal to increase the payment of
child support by all noncustodial parents and to impose sanctions
for repeated failure to pay child support. The proposal shall
include the following:
(1) Recognition of the importance of adult basic education,
vocational and technical training, specific job training, job
skills, and job placement in improving the employment prospects
and wages of noncustodial parents.
(2) An examination of the problem of arrearages and
recommendations to reduce their disincentive effects.
(3) Recommendations for incentives for participation in an
employment and training program.
(4) Recommendations for incentives and administrative
mechanisms to maintain child support payments.
(5) Recommendations for parents for whom incentives to pay
child support have failed.
(6) Recommendations for improvements to West Virginia's birth recording system that would establish paternity at birth,
including entry of the father's name and social security number
on all birth certificates.
(7) Estimates of the cost, in state and federal funds, for
the development and implementation of each recommendation and of
full implementation of the entire proposal.
Copies of the proposal shall be provided to the house and
senate committees on health and human resources, finance and on
the judiciary.
§9-9-7. Case management; individualized plans; coordinated
services.
(a) In implementing public assistance restructuring, the
secretary shall provide all services through a case management
model. Intensive, individualized case management shall be
offered to participating families as soon as practicable after
the effective date of this article or as soon as a participating
family begins to receive AFDC. The commissioner of human
services shall prepare an individualized family development plan
for each participating family, with the full involvement of the
family and with a right of appeal as provided in this article.
Services called for in the family development plan shall be
offered as soon as necessary to enable members of that family to
achieve self-sufficiency and to carry out their personal and
family responsibilities. All parents in participating families
are expected to be engaged in appropriate education or training activities directed toward self-sufficiency.
(b) The secretary shall prepare and maintain an annual plan
for coordinating and integrating all appropriate services in
order to promote successful outcomes. The plan shall encourage
the use of local and regional service providers and permit a
variety of methods of providing services. Emphasis should be
placed on coordinating and integrating career counseling, job
development, job training and skills, job placement, academic
education, and vocational and technical education. Public and
private institutions of higher education and other agencies which
offer similar or related services shall be invited to participate
as fully as possible in developing, implementing and updating the
annual coordination plan.
(c) The secretary shall work cooperatively with public and
private, local and regional entities:
(1) To develop subsidized jobs with public and nonprofit
employers, using the same health and safety standards that are in
effect for unsubsidized jobs;
(2) To adopt rules which set priorities for services of
benefit to the people of West Virginia and which prevent
displacement of unsubsidized workers by subsidized parents who
receive AFDC; and
(3) To ensure that necessary support services are available,
appropriate, and within a reasonable distance, including child
care, health care and transportation.
(d) In addition, the secretary shall:
(1) Work with community providers to develop an adequate
number and variety of supervised living alternatives designed to
meet the individual needs of pregnant and parenting minors;
(2) Work with community providers to develop parenting,
training and education options for pregnant minors and minor
parents;
(3) Establish an information program to enable parents to
learn about and take advantage of benefits and services that are
available to parents who work outside the home;
(4) Increase public awareness of the federal and state
earned income credit and encourage families who may be eligible
to apply for those tax credits;
(5) In partnership with the bureau of employment programs,
the economic development authority and the private sector,
develop one or more job training and employment programs for
noncustodial parents to encourage long term economic
self-sufficiency and, by extension, their ability to pay child
support.
§9-9-8. Required services for participating families.
(a) The secretary shall offer services under Title II of the
federal Family Support Act of 1988 as amended to all families
participating in public assistance restructuring.
(b) When developing and implementing the public assistance
restructuring authorized by this article, the commissioner of human services shall offer participating families intensive case
management services, initial assessment of the full range of
services that will be needed by each family, including testing
and evaluation, development of the individual family development
plan, and periodic reassessment of service needs and the
individual family development plan; plus any of the following
services needed by participating families:
(1) Appropriate, quality child care, available at times
which will facilitate parental employment or participation in
services indicated by their individual family development plan;
(2) Transportation which will facilitate parental employment
or participation in services indicated by their individual family
development plan;
(3) Career counseling, education and training, and job
search assistance consistent with the purposes of this article;
(4) Vocational rehabilitation;
(5) Medical assistance; and
(6) Any other services identified by the secretary that are
necessary and appropriate to achieve the purposes of an
individual family development plan and this article.
§9-9-9. Eligibility and benefit levels.
(a) The secretary shall adopt rules to determine eligibility
and benefit levels for all participating families as follows:
(1) Disregard the first one hundred fifty dollars per month
of earnings from an unsubsidized job and twenty-five percent of the remaining unsubsidized earnings in determining the amount of
the family's AFDC. The family shall receive the difference
between countable income and the AFDC payment standard in a
supplemental AFDC grant.
(2) Disregard the first ninety dollars per month of earnings
from a subsidized job in determining the amount of the family's
AFDC. The family shall receive the difference between countable
income and the AFDC payment standard in a supplemental AFDC
grant. Earnings from subsidized jobs shall qualify for federal
and state earned income credit if the family is otherwise
eligible.
(3) Provide incentive payments for completing parenting
education programs or related volunteer work as part of an
individualized family development plan, or both.
(4) Permit parents holding at least a half-time job the
option of receiving food stamp benefits in cash. The secretary
may make this option available to families in a control group as
well as to participating families. The secretary may limit this
option to households that include a dependent child under age
eighteen.
(5) Exclude education stipends, employment stipends, job
training stipends and incentive payments, as determined by the
secretary, in calculating AFDC or food stamps.
(6) Exclude the value of assets accumulated from the
earnings of parents and children receiving AFDC for purposes of determining continuing eligibility for AFDC or food stamps.
(7) Exclude the first fifty dollars of child support
received monthly in determining food stamp benefits.
(8) Provide transitional medical assistance for
thirty-six months for families with a working parent who become
ineligible for AFDC due to increased earnings, unless family
income exceeds one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal
poverty line.
(9) Extend transitional child care support for the duration
of the economic need for such assistance. Economic need shall be
measured on the same basis as income eligibility for child care
assistance. The recipient household may be subject to a sliding
fee scale.
(10) Exclude the equity value of one operable motor vehicle
per family for purposes of determining eligibility for AFDC or
food stamps.
(11) Make benefits available to a caretaker who is not a
relative but is fulfilling a parental role, when it is in the
best interest of the child that the caretaker receive such
benefits. The secretary may make this option available to
families in a control group as well as to participating families.
(12) When determining a parent's gross income for purposes
of eligibility and benefit levels, take into consideration and
include the potential income of a parent who is voluntarily
unemployed or underemployed unless:
(A) The parent is physically or mentally incapacitated;
(B) The parent is attending a vocational or technical
education program related to current employment, or a job
training program sponsored by the bureau of employment programs,
the department of economic development, or the division of human
services; or
(C) The unemployment or underemployment of the parent is in
the best interest of the child.
(b) In determining eligibility and benefit levels for
two-parent participating families, the secretary shall:
(1) Allow two-parent families with earned income who would
otherwise qualify for assistance to receive AFDC regardless of
the number of hours worked each month and supplement their
earnings with partial AFDC benefits and medical assistance.
(2) Eliminate the requirements for two-parent families that
the primary worker must have worked at least six quarters and be
unemployed for at least thirty days, so that two-parent and
one-parent families may receive AFDC under more similar rules.
(c) In determining eligibility and benefit levels for minor
parents in participating families, the secretary shall:
(1) Require pregnant and parenting minors, including such
minors under the age of sixteen years, to attend school or an
appropriate alternative educational or training activity.
(2) Ensure that their individual family development plan
includes a requirement to participate in a case-managed support, education and training program.
(3) Adopt rules, which shall include appropriate exemptions,
requiring pregnant and parenting minors who are not emancipated
minors to live with a parent or in an approved supervised living
arrangement. However, such rules shall not impose sanctions that
are more stringent than those provided in section twelve of this
article.
(4) Allow pregnant and parenting minors who live with their
parents to have their eligibility for AFDC and the amount of
their AFDC determined without consideration of their parents'
income.
(d) If payments to caretakers authorized in subdivision
(11), subsection (a) of this section are approved by federal
authorities and implemented, the commissioner of human services
may grant aid for the benefit of a dependent child to a caretaker
in lieu of a relative.
§9-9-10. Work requirements.
(a) The secretary shall randomly select up to eighty percent
of the families receiving AFDC to be participating families for
the purposes of this demonstration project. The remaining
families shall be considered a control group. The secretary
shall also randomly select three fourths of the participating
families to be subject to a work requirement in accordance with
this section. Subject to the provisions of this article, and
provided that all services required by this article have been offered and are available when needed, a parent in a family
subject to the work requirement shall obtain a full-time or
half-time job as defined by the secretary by rule, and shall
participate in continued education or training as necessary, in
order to maintain continued eligibility to receive AFDC cash
payments by mail or electronic transfer. The secretary shall
establish by rule criteria for jobs that must be accepted if
offered, including the criteria that each job must pay at least
minimum wage. The work requirement shall be applied as follows:
(1) After receiving AFDC for fifteen months after the
effective date of this section, an able-bodied primary wage
earner in a two-parent family shall obtain a full-time job.
(2) After receiving AFDC for thirty months after the
effective date of this section, an able-bodied single parent or
an able-bodied parent in a two-parent family in which one parent
is incapacitated shall accept:
(A) A half-time job if the family includes at least one
child under the age of thirteen; or
(B) A full-time job if the family does not include at least
one child under the age of thirteen.
(3) In computing the fifteen-month or thirty-month time
limit, the months during which the family received AFDC shall be
cumulative except that six months shall be subtracted for each
continuous twelve-month period in which the family received no
AFDC, or received reduced AFDC and held an unsubsidized job which they did not quit without good cause and from which they were not
dismissed for cause.
(4) Pregnant mothers whose fifteen-month or thirty-month
time limit has expired shall continue to hold a job unless there
has been a medical determination that the parent is unable to
participate or the parent is exempt based on other criteria
established by rule. However, a pregnant mother shall not be
required to begin a new job.
(b) Parents subject to a work requirement shall accept any
unsubsidized job they are capable of performing even if it pays
wages which are less than the AFDC grant.
(c) If no unsubsidized job is available, parents subject to
a work requirement shall be encouraged to develop a family
development plan and shall accept a subsidized job offered by a
public or nonprofit employer.
(d) To promote placement of parents in unsubsidized
employment, parents may be required by the secretary to
participate in an individual or group job search coordinated by
the secretary during the two months immediately preceding the
expiration of the 15-month or 30-month time limit and following
each period of ten months' participation in a subsidized job.
(e) This section shall not diminish the responsibility of
the secretary to enable parents to complete their individual
family development plan. If, in the judgment of the secretary,
fulfillment of the work requirement would jeopardize a parent's satisfactory completion of an education or training program
included in the family development plan, the parent's work
requirement shall be modified. If such modification is made, the
amount of time committed to education, training, and work shall
be substantially equal to the amount that otherwise would have
been devoted to the work requirement. However, a parent whose
work requirement is a full-time job shall work at least ten hours
per week and a parent whose work requirement is a half-time job
shall work at least five hours per week, unless section eleven of
this article allows a lower work requirement. The secretary may
waive the requirements of this subsection according to criteria
established by rule.
§9-9-11. Exemptions.
(a) The secretary shall establish by rule criteria,
standards and procedures for granting temporary deferments and
permanent exemptions from work requirements in accordance with
this section.
(b) The following parents shall be either temporarily
deferred or permanently exempt from work requirements:
(1) A parent for whom no unsubsidized or subsidized job is
available.
(2) A parent for whom support services, which are essential
to employment and identified in the family development plan,
cannot be arranged. Such services shall include intensive case
management, education and job training, child care, and transportation.
(3) A parent who is incapable of working due to a documented
physical, emotional, or mental condition which can be reasonably
presumed to present a substantial barrier to employment. The
standards for exemption under this subdivision shall not be as
rigorous as those used to determine disability under Title XVI of
the Social Security Act. Parents with temporary disabilities
expected to last more than three months shall participate in
appropriate rehabilitation, education or training programs.
(4) A parent who is needed in the home on a full-time basis
in order to care for a child under the age of eighteen months.
To qualify for such deferment, a parent of a child older than the
age of six months shall cooperate in the development of a family
development plan and shall participate in the education, training
and other activities necessary for the completion of such plan if
the parent has not already done so before the expiration of the
fifteen-month or thirty-month time limit.
(5) A parent who is needed in the home on a full-time basis
in order to care for an ill or disabled parent, spouse or child.
(6) A parent who attends classes at least twenty-four hours
each week for the purpose of attaining a high school diploma or
general educational development (GED) certificate, provided the
parent is making satisfactory progress toward the attainment of
such diploma or certificate.
(7) A parent who is enrolled in, attending, and making satisfactory progress toward the completion of a program of
post-secondary education or training when their fifteen-month or
thirty-month time limit expires, as follows:
(A) A parent who is enrolled full time in a post-secondary
education program whose normal duration is no more than two years
and who is within six months of expected completion of such
program shall be deferred from work requirements until they have
completed the program, they are no longer attending the program,
or the six-month expected completion period has ended, whichever
occurs first;
(B) A parent who is enrolled full time in a post-secondary
education program whose normal duration is more than two years
but no more than four years and who is within twelve months of
expected completion of such program shall be deferred from work
requirements until they have completed the program, they are no
longer attending the program, or the one-year expected completion
period has ended, whichever occurs first;
(C) A parent who is enrolled full time in a post-secondary
education program which meets Reach Up requirements but who does
not meet the criteria in paragraph (A) or (B) of this subdivision
shall have a reduced work requirement of six hours per week,
which may be met by a college work-study program or community
service program; and
(D) A parent who is enrolled in at least six credit hours of
course work or the equivalent but less than full time in a post-secondary education program which meets Reach Up
requirements but who does not meet the criteria in paragraph (A)
or (B) of this subdivision shall have a reduced work requirement
of twelve hours per week, which may be met by a community service
program.
(8) Any other parent designated by the secretary according
to criteria established by rule.
§9-9-12. Sanctions.
(a) If a parent is required to work and fails without good
cause to accept and carry out such work, or quits a job without
good cause or is dismissed from a job for cause, the family shall
be eligible to receive AFDC but shall not receive cash payments
by mail or electronic transfer. In lieu of AFDC cash payments by
mail or electronic transfer, the secretary shall provide vendor
payments for housing, utilities and food. Any balance of AFDC
remaining after vendor payments have been deducted shall be paid
in the form of two checks, the first to be paid within the first
half of the calendar month and the second to be paid within the
second half of the calendar month.
(b) To receive payments under subsection (a) of this
section, a parent shall attend three meetings each month and
shall report his or her circumstances monthly on a form provided
by the secretary. Two of the meetings shall be to provide
information and documentation necessary for vendor payments and
to compute any remaining balance. The third meeting shall be for initial assessment and development of the family development plan
when such tasks have not been completed; reassessment or review
and revision of the family development plan, if appropriate; and
to encourage the parent to fulfill the work requirement. The
commissioner of human services may waive any meeting when
extraordinary circumstances prevent a parent from attending. The
secretary shall adopt rules to implement this section.
(c) Families sanctioned under this article for failure to
meet work requirements shall remain eligible for food stamps and
shall not, because of such failure, be subject to the food stamp
program's sanctions for "failure to comply without good cause"
and "voluntary quit without good cause."
§9-9-13. Notice and appeal.
(a) A parent may appeal the provisions of an individual
family development plan. The secretary shall provide notice to
each parent of their appeal and due process rights and the
procedures they are to follow. All federal and division of human
services rules regarding conciliation, notice, hearing, and
appeal shall be followed.
(b) Before AFDC sanctions are applied under this article,
all federal and division of human services rules regarding
conciliation, notice, hearing, and appeal shall be followed.
(c) The parent's right to appeal an AFDC sanction
determination to the division of human services shall include the
right to continuing AFDC cash payments by mail pending appeal if the appeal is received prior to the effective date of any
proposed sanctions.
§9-9-14. Evaluation and reporting.
(a) In designing and conducting the public assistance
restructuring authorized in this article, the secretary shall
develop and use evaluation methods that measure achievement of
the goals of restructuring as specified in subsection (b),
section two of this article.
(b) Beginning with the fifteenth day of January, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-six and annually thereafter, the
secretary shall file a report with the Legislature. The report
shall focus on the development, implementation and effectiveness
of the services required to support the public assistance
restructuring authorized by this article. The report shall
include the following:
(1) The various methods employed by the secretary to involve
participating families, local organizations and other government
agencies in restructuring, and the effectiveness of using local
organizations to develop subsidized and unsubsidized job
placements.
(2) A description of the development, implementation, and
subsequent evaluation of agency staff training.
(3) A description of the development, implementation, and
subsequent evaluation of the case management system and
individualized family development plan components of restructuring.
(4) Progress in establishing job training and employment
programs for noncustodial parents.
(5) Progress in developing a variety of supervised living
alternatives designed to meet the individualized needs of
pregnant minors and minor parents.
(6) An evaluation of the program by participating families.
(7) A description of the capacity of the human services
delivery system, both within and without state government, to
sustain public assistance restructuring, including the support
services required by this article.
(8) Documentation of participant outcomes, including
specific information relating to the number of persons employed,
by occupation, industry and wage; the types of subsidized and
unsubsidized jobs secured by participants; any available
information about the impact of restructuring on children,
including objective indicators of improved conditions; and the
number of participating families involved in training and
education programs, by type of program. Beginning on the first
day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six and
annually thereafter, the report shall differentiate participant
outcomes according to membership in the control group and the two
randomly-selected demonstration groups.
(9) Progress in implementing the provisions of this article,
including an analysis of the effect of public assistance restructuring on state and federal revenues and expenditures.
(10) A summary of all interim and final reports submitted by
independent evaluation contractors to the division of human
services.
§9-9-15. Administrative improvements.
Independently of the public assistance restructuring
authorized in this article, the secretary shall implement the
following administrative measures:
(1) Identify and implement the most cost-effective method
for integrating the computer systems for AFDC, medical
assistance, child care, and the women, infants and children (WIC)
program. The integrated system shall be designed to be easy for
parents to use and to preserve the confidentiality of families
and individuals.
(2) Analyze the need for a quality assurance function for
the division of human services programs.
(3) Improve caseload and expenditure forecasting for all
public assistance programs.
(4) Amend any existing rules governing vendor payments to
landlords, if necessary, to accelerate the payment of rent when
families who are receiving AFDC are at least two months in
arrears and may be threatened with eviction.
(5) Pursue adoption of a financially feasible electronic
benefit transfer system.
(6) Draft a mission statement for the department of public assistance and submit the proposed statement to the health and
human resources committees of the Legislature. The mission
statement should reflect the department's vision of service to
families and individual clients, responsive family support
programs, collaborative service systems, quality staff training
and support, and accountability to the people of West Virginia.
§9-9-16. Expiration.
Unless otherwise provided by the Legislature and with the
exception of sections two and sixteen of this article, the
provisions of this article shall expire on the thirtieth day of
June, two thousand four.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to restructure the system
of public assistance as presently administered by the division of
human services and establish a pilot program within the
restructured system.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
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