Sec. 17b-112e. Safety net services. Regulations.
Sec. 17b-112e. Safety net services. Regulations. (a) The Department of Social
Services shall provide safety net services for certain families identified as having significant barriers to employment and families who are at risk of losing benefits under the
temporary family assistance program or no longer receiving program benefits. Such
families shall include those: (1) Identified as having significant barriers to employment
during the initial assessment by the department's eligibility worker or during the first
twelve months of employment services by an employment services case manager; (2)
who have made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment but have not been
able to do so or who are at risk of failing to complete the employment services program;
(3) who have exhausted their eligibility for temporary family assistance program benefits; and (4) who are not eligible for six-month extensions of temporary family assistance
benefits due to: (A) The receipt of two sanctions from the department during the first
twenty months of the twenty-one-month time limit of said temporary family assistance
program; or (B) the determination by the department that such a family has not made a
good-faith effort to seek and maintain employment.
(b) Said safety net shall consist of services provided through the existing community
service delivery network with additional resources provided by the Department of Social
Services. Services shall be provided in-kind or through vendor or voucher payment.
Services may include the following: (1) Food, shelter, clothing and employment assistance; (2) eviction prevention; (3) an in-depth family needs assessment; (4) intensive
case management that includes visits to the family's home; (5) continuous monitoring
for child abuse or neglect; and (6) for families at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program, individual performance contracts administered by the
Labor Department that require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation
in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by
the Labor Commissioner.
(c) Families successfully meeting the program requirements established by the individual performance contracts in subdivision (6) of subsection (b) of this section prior
to the end of the twenty-one-month time limit shall be considered to have made a good
faith effort to comply with the requirements of the program for the purposes of qualifying
for a six-month extension, provided they have made a good faith effort to comply with
the individual performance contract or have not incurred a sanction subsequent to completing the individual performance contract.
(d) The Commissioner of Social Services shall implement policies and procedures
necessary for the purposes of this section while in the process of adopting such policies
and procedures in regulation form, provided the commissioner prints notice of intention
to adopt the regulations in the Connecticut Law Journal within twenty days of implementing such policies and procedures. Policies and procedures implemented pursuant
to this subsection shall be valid until the time final regulations are effective.
(June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2, S. 6, 165; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2, S. 57, 69; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9, S. 129, 131; P.A.
03-19, S. 39; P.A. 07-160, S. 2.)
History: June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2 effective July 1, 1997; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2 amended Subsec. (a)(1) to make
a technical change, amended Subsec. (b)(5) to require that individual performance contracts be administered by the Labor
Department and require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or
any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner, in lieu of Commissioner of Social Services, and
amended Subsec. (d) to delete requirement that final regulations be submitted to the legislative regulation review committee
no later than November 15, 1997, effective July 1, 2001; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9 revised effective date of June Sp. Sess.
P.A. 01-2 but without affecting this section; P.A. 03-19 made a technical change in Subsec. (b), effective May 12, 2003;
P.A. 07-160 amended Subsec. (a) by revising categories of families eligible for safety net services to include families
identified as having significant barriers to employment, families who have made a good faith effort to seek and maintain
employment but who have not been able to do so and families who have exhausted their eligibility for temporary family
assistance program benefits and by making technical changes, amended Subsec. (b) by adding "an in-depth family needs
assessment" as service provided, by specifying that intensive case management includes visits to the family's home and
by making technical changes, and amended Subsec. (c) by changing internal reference from Subdiv. (5) to Subdiv. (6),
effective July 1, 2007.