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Vermont TANF State Plan Renewal October 1, 2024 through December 31, 2027 10

according to the provisions of Vermont’s Reach Up statute, 33 V.S.A. §§ 1112-1116, and applicable Reach Up Program rules. Parents and caretakers receiving assistance are assessed for their ability to engage in employment or other activities when they become program participants.

When a Reach Up Program participant refuses to engage in activities, as required by his or her FDP, without good cause, the participant’s family grant is reduced. The first three months the grant is reduced by $75 for each month of non-compliance. If the participant continues to refuse to engage in work for more than three months, the family’s grant is reduced by $150 per month.

All reductions in the family grant for a participant’s non-engagement are per participant. If at any time there are two parents in the family who have work requirements and refuse to engage in work, the family’s grant is reduced for each parent’s act of non-engagement. Participants who are subject to financial sanctions must meet with their case manager at least once a month. A parent who, without good cause, does not keep an appointment with the case manager when the family grant is being reduced due to a refusal to engage in activities may result in termination of financial assistance to the family.

When a participant who has received 60 or more countable, cumulative months of Reach Up financial assistance, or cash assistance funded by a TANF block grant in another state, refuses to engage in activities without good cause, the family’s financial assistance is terminated.

(a)(1)(A)(iii) Ensure that parents and caretakers receiving assistance under the program engage in work activities in accordance with section 407.

Case managers help participants define employment goals based on individualized assessments of their needs and strengths. The FDP specifies the participant's employment goal, steps and services needed to achieve the goal, and target dates for completion. The FDP also defines what support services DCF will pay for, including childcare and transportation. With the FDP in place, the case manager helps the Reach Up participant to carry out the plan and monitors his or her progress throughout the service delivery phase, modifying the plan as necessary. The State may not reduce or terminate assistance based on the refusal of an individual to engage in work activities if the individual is a single custodial parent, caring for a child under 13 years of age, and the individual proves that he or she has demonstrated an inability (as determined by the state) to obtain needed childcare for one or more of the following reasons:

(i) Appropriate childcare within a reasonable distance from the home or work site is unavailable; (ii) Informal childcare by a relative or under other arrangements is unavailable or unsuitable; or (iii) Appropriate and affordable formal childcare arrangements are unavailable.

“Appropriate childcare” is defined as an available child care slot with a licensed or registered provider within 5 miles of the parent or caretaker's residence or normal route to a program activity or employment that corresponds to the days and hours care is needed and the age of the child needing care; or the participant or caretaker chooses an Approved Relative Child Care (ARCC) provider who is in compliance with the law over a regulated childcare provider.

“Reasonable distance” is defined as located within five miles of the parent or caretaker's residence or on