Improving Supports for Kinship Caregivers Act of 2016

Improving Supports for Kinship Caregivers Act of 2016

This bill amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSAct) to require a state receiving a family assistance grant to ensure that the state agency administering the TANF program:

• employs a primary kinship resource employee trained to give legal custody and guardianship guidance to a relative caregiver of a TANF-receiving minor child; and
• notifies the relative caregiver of options to participate in the child's care and placement.

The Department of Health and Human Services shall prescribe regulations to improve the reporting of data on the economic well-being and circumstances of families with relative caregivers of minor children.

A state may not reduce or terminate TANF assistance based on the refusal of an individual age 60 or over (senior) to engage in required work.

The five-year limitation on TANF assistance shall not apply to seniors, nor may a state receiving a TANF grant impose any asset test in determining the eligibility of a senior for assistance.

The amount of cash assistance given a family under a state TANF program for a child must equal the amount of cash assistance given for any other child in the family.

SSAct title IV part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) is amended to require the state plan for foster care and adoption assistance to require the administering state agency to employ a primary kinship resource employee to do what such an employee must do under the state TANF plan.

SSAct title IV part B (Child and Family Services) is amended to reauthorize family connection grants through FY2018.

A state with a foster care and adoption assistance plan shall:

• study its foster family home licensing standards in comparison with the National Association for Regulatory Administration Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards; and
• review and update them every three years, as well as amounts of foster care maintenance payments and adoption assistance.

SSAct title IV part B is amended to require the state plans for child welfare services to make certain assurances regarding relative caregiver families applying for foster care assistance.

The bill reauthorizes family support services at increased levels through FY2020.

SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) is amended to require a state plan for child and spousal support to describe the process for determining whether an assistance recipient is cooperating in good faith with the state in establishing paternity or in establishing, modifying, or enforcing a support order.

SSA title IV part E is amended regarding state plans for foster care and adoption assistance to apply the requirement that all steps be taken to secure an assignment to the state of any support rights on behalf of all children in foster care, not just those receiving foster care maintenance payments.