Court Opinion

ID: 9720866
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:43:38.424794+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:21.890277
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(dissenting).
Because I consider the Court’s decision to be inconsistent with both the letter of, and *80the policy behind, the AFDC program, I must respectfully dissent.
As the majority points out, the essential test for eligibility relevant to this case under federal regulation is whether the parent exercises sufficient responsibility for care and control of her child. Under the regulations, however, the child may be “living with” his parent even though he or his parent is temporarily absent from home or the child is hospitalized or under the jurisdiction of the court. Thus, the fact that a parent does not provide for all the needs of her child every day will not necessarily cut off AFDC eligibility. It is true that while David and Clayton Brunner stay at North-wood their mother does not provide all their daily needs. She does, however, retain the primary responsibility for their care and control. She maintains the family home, where the boys share a bedroom. Every weekend one or the other, or both of them, stays with her in that home. Even though the county reimburses her at fixed rates for costs of food and transportation incurred by these visits, the shelter, a room of their own which she provides, was paid for by the AFDC grant, which has now been reduced.
Mary Brunner actively participates in the North wood plan of treatment by making regular visits to the children and by helping to prepare for their return to their own home, neighborhood, and local school district. Of importance is the fact that since the placements are voluntary, she is responsible for deciding each day whether her children will stay in the treatment program. The North wood program is specifically designed to involve the family, using the home as a base. As the ultimate goal is to return the children to their home and school, the absence of the children from the home is designed to be only temporary. Once the children return home she will resume total responsibility for their daily care.
Even were Mary Brunner not exercising sufficient control over her children to meet the eligibility requirements, Minn.Reg. DPW 44(D)(3)(a) allows AFDC payments to continue to provide for a child with “special educational needs which require that he/she reside away from home.” The AFDC Program Manual, Part IV-C, explains that these needs must be such that they cannot be met by the local public school district, and include “mental, emotional, or physical handicap[s]” or “problems of school adjustment.” The record clearly shows that since their mother’s divorce David and Clayton have developed mental and emotional problems which cause problems in school adjustment. Furthermore, the department’s child protection worker testified that the public school could not provide for these unique educational needs. Thus, the Brunners’ case falls squarely within the exception, as interpreted by the manual. While the majority gives great weight to the 1979 amendment to the regulation, this amendment was not effective at the time of the grant reduction, nor did any other definition exist other than the “contrary and unambiguous language” of the manual.
Not only are Mary Brunner’s children entitled to AFDC benefits under a commonsense reading of the relevant statutes, but terminating those benefits subverts the basic policies underlying the AFDC program. One of the main purposes for making AFDC payments is to strengthen family life. Minn.St. 256.85 provides that the AFDC statutes be liberally construed in order to accomplish their purpose:
“ * * * which is hereby declared to be to enable the state and its several counties to cooperate with responsible mothers or relatives in rearing future citizens, when such cooperation is necessary on account of relatively permanent conditions, in order to keep the family together in the same household, reasonably safeguard the health of the mother and secure to the children during their tender years her personal care and training.”
Similarly, the aim of the North wood program is to provide help to disturbed children with the least disruption to family life. Once Mary Brunner’s grant is reduced, however, she will be unable to maintain her present home and will be forced to move to *81much smaller, cheaper quarters,1 where there will be no bedroom for the boys. The place they know as “home” will no longer be available to them, and the new quarters will afford them no separate room. When the New Mexico Court of Appeals faced a similar dilemma in Haceesa v. Heim, 84 N.M. 112, 500 P.2d 197 (1972), the court reversed the grant reduction. The court reasoned that funds must be available to enable children at a boarding school to go home on weekends and holidays, for to keep the family from being financially able to have them at those times would be inconsistent with the purposes of the AFDC program. If Mary Brunner’s grant is reduced she will be financially unable to provide an adequate home for her sons, a result which is also inconsistent with the purposes of the AFDC program. Moreover, the boys will have little incentive to improve their behavior at North wood so that they can return to a “home” which has no room for them. Thus, the state violates its own welfare policies and jeopardizes the $2,400-per-month investment it has made to put David and Clayton into treatment, all in order to save $118 per month. With this result I cannot concur. I would reverse the district court’s decision to reduce Mary Brunner’s AFDC grant and order the return to her of assistance wrongfully withheld.

. Mary Brunner’s present rent is $225 per month for a three-bedroom house which includes a bedroom for the boys, with utility bills amounting to more than $45. The proposed reduction is from $404 per month to $286 per month.