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NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance- TA and SNAP Employment Policy Manual Section 385.3 - Page 24 Rev. 4/2025 Districts with a full county waiver are required to use an ABAWD code of “N” for non-ABAWDs but have the option of using an ABAWD code “A” or “W” for ABAWDs during the period covered by the full county ABAWD waiver. Use of an ABAWD code “A” for an ABAWD in a district with a full county ABAWD waiver will alleviate the district from having to update the ABAWD code from “W” to “A” if the district loses the full county ABAWD waiver in the future. An ABAWD who resides in a district with a full county waiver is removed from the ABAWD selection process used by OTDA regardless of whether the ABAWD code for the ABAWD is “W” or “A”. An individual who moves into a jurisdictional area with an approved ABAWD waiver is no longer required to meet the ABAWD work requirement to maintain SNAP eligibility beginning the month the individual moves to the waived area. ABAWDs who are not subject to the ABAWD requirement due to living in a waived area must still be assigned the appropriate SNAP employability and ABAWD status codes for reporting purposes and remain subject to general SNAP work requirements and SNAP E&T requirements if assigned by the district, unless the SNAP household documents that the individual is exempt from SNAP work requirements consistent with 18 NYCRR §385.3. Regardless of eligibility for a waiver, all districts have the option to exclude a portion of non- waived ABAWDs from the ABAWD requirement. Federal law and regulations provide an allotment of ABAWD exclusions to each state based on twelve percent of a state’s ABAWD caseload in non-waived areas as of July 1st of each year. States do not earn ABAWD exclusions in areas that are covered by an ABAWD waiver. OTDA distributes the ABAWD exclusions allotted to New York, if any, to districts that do not have an approved district-wide ABAWD waiver. An ABAWD exclusion allows a district to exclude one ABAWD from the ABAWD requirement for one calendar month. Districts that do not have an approved district-wide ABAWD waiver have the option to exclude a portion of non-waived ABAWDs from the ABAWD requirement to the extent that the district has a sufficient number of available ABAWD exclusions. The total number of exclusions used by a district must not exceed the number approved for use by OTDA. The availability of exclusions provides districts with a great deal of flexibility. Each district is responsible for establishing its own exclusion criteria. For example, a district may wish to exclude ABAWDs who are working, but do not meet the required number of hours to maintain eligibility under the ABAWD provisions, or ABAWDs who have transportation barriers of an ongoing nature. Districts also have the flexibility to establish a limit on the number of months that an ABAWD will be excluded from the ABAWD requirement. The criteria chosen by the district must account for the limit on the number of exclusions that are available to the district for the 12-month period. Each district is required to monitor the use of ABAWD exclusions to ensure that the ABAWD exclusion policy is applied consistently on a monthly basis and that the district does not exceed the number of ABAWD exclusions made available to the district by OTDA for the 12-month period. Districts must also ensure that the use of an ABAWD exclusion is reported to OTDA. An