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15 25. TANF funds may be used for Foster Care maintenance, tuition and related services and juvenile justice services, only if authorized under prior law, including alternatives to detention and community reinvestment, for persons placed pursuant to Articles 3, 7 and 10 of the Family Court Act and for voluntary placements and child protective services and preventive services including determining eligibility therefor, to the same extent as such activities were authorized under the State’s emergency assistance program as of September 30, 1995. A child is financially eligible for EAF if the income and resources of the child, at the time of the emergency, are not immediately available to meet all costs of care, maintenance or administrative activities associated with the child’s placement and at least one member of the household is in receipt of public assistance or SSI. To be eligible, the child must have been living with a specified relative within 6 months prior to the emergency situation which has given rise to the need for Foster Care. In addition, the reason for care must not have arisen due to the parent’s refusal to accept training or employment or due to the parent’s mismanagement of public assistance funds. Funding is available for emergency assistance which the State authorizes during one period of 30 consecutive days in any given 12 months. Once the initial eligibility is determined and EAF funding is authorized for the case, eligibility continues until the need arising from the emergency ceases to exist without any specified time limits. The continuation of the emergency situation must be re-determined at each case service plan based on the continuing emergency of the child and the needs arising from the emergency that are documented in the case record. Title IV-E remains the program of choice for Foster Care claiming whenever the child is Title IV-E eligible. 26. The State will utilize TANF Block Grant funding to provide services, which enable long term, hard to place/serve recipients of TANF with significant barriers to long term independence to overcome these barriers. These services will assist in improving the marketability or preparation of TANF funded recipients for employment. The Block Grant funding can also be used by districts to contract independent medical advisors to aid in determining the employability of clients who claim physical or mental impediments to engaging in work activities. In addition, services may target participants who are employed and have recently left TANF funded assistance and require supports to remain off assistance, former recipients who are, or should be, actively seeking additional employment opportunities, persons who are at risk of requiring TANF funded assistance or adults who are noncompliant with program requirements and require outreach/re- engagement services. These services will be limited to eligible individuals, including but not limited to non-custodial parents, whose incomes do not exceed 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. 27. For FFY ’99 and following, the State may provide TANF funded or State funded benefits and services, either as a TANF program or as a separate State program, to eligible individuals and families whose incomes do not exceed 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, MA recipients whose income does not exceed 200% Federal Poverty Level, or are eligible to receive benefits and services under the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) or the New York State CCDBG. Such benefits and services may include, but shall not be limited to, support of food pantries and soup kitchens which serve eligible families, and services and benefits to eligible individuals and families which increase self-sufficiency; job training and work; children to be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; nurse-family partnership programs; Pre-K programs; counseling and education to prevent substance use disorders; settlement house programs; caretaker relative programs; promotion of educational opportunities; prevention or reduction of the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancy; promotion of job preparation, work and marriage; and encouragement to form and maintain two-parent families.