Administrative Rules of Montana › Department 37 - PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › Chapter 37.49 - IV-E FOSTER CARE SERVICES › Subchapter 37.49.1 - General Requirements › Rule 37.49.101 - IV-E FOSTER CARE ELIGIBILITY: DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 13, July 5, 2024
For purposes of this subchapter, the following definitions
				  apply:
(1) "Child" means a person who
				is under age 18 or who is age 18 or older if the person is a full-time student
				in a secondary school who is reasonably expected to obtain a secondary school
				diploma or its equivalent in or before the month of the person's 19th
				birthday.
(2) "Child care
				institution" means a private institution, or public institution which
				accommodates no more than 25 children, which is licensed or approved by the
				state to provide care for children who have been removed from the home of the
				children's parents or guardians by a voluntary agreement or by court order. The
				term does not include detention facilities, forestry camps, training schools,
				or any other facility operated primarily for the detention of children
				determined to be delinquent.
(3)
				"Child support rights" means a child's legal entitlement to cash assistance
				from a parent with whom the child does not live.
(4) "Department" means the department of
				public health and human services.
(5) "Dependent child" means a child as
				defined in this rule who is deprived of parental support or care due to any of
				the causes set forth in ARM
				37.49.113, lives with a specified
				relative as provided in ARM
				37.49.112 and lacks income and
				resources sufficient for the child's needs according to the assistance
				standards and resource limits set forth in ARM
				37.49.407 and
				37.49.501.
(6) "Earned income" means income information
				acquired by researching the data in the automated eligibility system maintained
				by the department, the automated wage and labor data base maintained by the
				Montana department of labor and industry and the automated income tax data base
				maintained by the Montana department of revenue. Income information may also be
				obtained from the child or parents.
(7) "TANF cash assistance" means assistance
				in the form of monthly cash payments provided to eligible families.
(8) "Filing unit" means the child for whom
				IV-E eligibility is being sought and the persons with whom the child lives
				whose income and resources are considered in determining the child's
				eligibility.
(9) "Foster home"
				means a home licensed by the state to provide care for a child or children who
				have been removed from the home of the child or children's parents or guardians
				by voluntary agreement or by court order.
(10) "IV-E foster care maintenance payments"
				means monthly cash payments made on behalf of a IV-E eligible child to cover
				the cost of (and the cost of providing) food, clothing, shelter, daily
				supervision, school supplies, a child's personal incidentals, liability
				insurance with respect to a child and reasonable travel for a child's
				visitation with family or other caretakers. Local travel associated with
				providing the items listed above is also an allowable expense. In the case of
				child care institutions, such term must include the reasonable costs of
				administration and operation of such institutions as are necessarily required
				to provide the items described above.
(11) "Gross monthly income" means all earned
				and unearned income received in the month being considered, except for income
				excluded under ARM
				37.49.412 and
				37.49.414. In stepparent household
				cases as described in ARM
				37.49.201, gross monthly income
				includes any income of the stepparent deemed available to the spouse as
				unearned income as provided in ARM
				37.49.406.
(12) "Kinship foster care" means a youth care
				facility in which substitute care is provided to one to six children or youth
				other than the kinship parent's own children, stepchildren or wards. The
				substitute care may be provided by any of the following:
(a) a member of the child's extended
				family;
(b) a member of the child's
				or family's tribe;
(c) the child's
				godparents;
(d) the child's
				stepparents; or
(e) a person to
				whom the child, child's parents or family ascribe a family relationship and
				with whom the child has had a significant emotional tie that existed prior to
				the department's involvement with the child or family.