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Kansas Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program State Plan

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), Family Services Division. The agency’s mission is to protect children, promote healthy families and encourage personal responsibility. The agency’s objectives follow:

▪ Strengthen families ▪ Safely reduce the number of children in care ▪ Promote employment ▪ Exercise responsible stewardship of public resources ▪ Build public/private partnerships

A. General Provisions

1. Outline how the state intends to conduct a program designed to serve all political subdivisions in the State (not necessarily in a uniform manner) that provides assistance to needy families with (or expecting) children and provides parents with job preparation, work and support services to enable them to leave the program and become self-sufficient (Section 402(A)(1)(A)(i) of the Social Security Act).

Kansas’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides temporary cash assistance for no more than 24 months to families with children under age 18, or age 18 (up to age 19) and working toward attainment of a high school diploma or its equivalent, and pregnant women when financially eligible. A qualifying child may also be temporarily absent from the home for up to 180 days if the intent is for the child to return to the home. Cash assistance payments are made through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). Eligibility for TANF is limited to families whose income is less than 30% of the Federal Poverty Level. Eligibility, benefit standards and time limits are detailed in Appendix 1.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins (relatives within the 5th degree of kinship to the dependent child) who assume primary caregiving responsibility for a child in the absence of the child’s parents can qualify for TANF. These adults may receive assistance for children in their care and may choose to apply for benefits for themselves. When the non-parental caregiver receives assistance only for the children, the income and assets of the relative caregiver is not considered, and the case is not