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191 (07/2026) Chapter 2:Eligibility • Section 4: Household information from the applicant’s home each week. The home the child leaves from to go to school receives credit for breakfast and lunch for that day. If the child is receiving 11 or more of their weekly meals from the applicant’s home on a regular basis, ODHS|OHA sends an appropriate notice to remove the child from the other case. If not, ODHS|OHA sends the applicant a denial of benefits for that child. If there is a dispute about who may receive benefits for the child(ren), it must be determined from whose household they receive the majority of their 21 weekly meals. Determine the number of the 21 meals the child receives in each home. The home the child leaves from to go to school receives credit for breakfast and lunch for that day. When possible and the parenting time/meal provision is close to equal, ODHS|OHA may work between the persons wanting SNAP for the child(ren) to help the parties come to an agreement that allows both parties a turn to receive benefits (e.g., each person having the right to apply for one child each if there are two children, or a one year each rotation if there is only one child). The decision to follow an agreement is the applicants’ decision and the agency honors the agreement. Click here for additional information about shared custody found in Eligibility groups. TANF Whether or not there is a legal agreement, for TANF, shared custody prompts us to ask questions: • Where do the child(ren) sleep most of the time? • Where do they eat their meals? • Who is responsible for school and medical appointments? In cases where they report and claim everything is equal, there may be no TANF eligibility because there is no primary caretaker. Individuals living in multiple household groups in one month Individuals who live in more than one household group during a calendar month are members of the household group in which they spend more than half of their time, except as follows: • Parents who sleep 30 percent or more of their time during the calendar month in the household of the dependent child(ren) • A dependent child is included in the household group with the caretaker relative who usually has the major responsibility for care, control and supervision of the dependent child, if the dependent child lives with two household groups in the same calendar month for at least one of the following reasons:
Education
The usual caretaker relative is gone from the household for part of the month because of illness or a family emergency. An award by a court of joint (50/50) legal custody does not, by itself, mean a child does not meet the definition of household group member. Click here for Eligibility groups.