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current address and location of a WorkFirst recipient to an officer of the law or a person identified as a United States immigration official if DSHS is given the recipient’s name and social security number and the officer/official satisfactorily demonstrates that the recipient is a fugitive, that the location or apprehension of the recipient is within the officer’s/official’s duties, and that the request is made in the proper exercise of those duties. In addition, if DSHS becomes aware that a WorkFirst recipient is the subject of an outstanding warrant that meets certain criteria, DSHS may contact the appropriate law enforcement agency and, if the warrant is valid, provide the law enforcement agency with the location of the recipient.
DSHS provides the Employment Security Department with the names and social security numbers of all recipients in the WorkFirst program. This information is used for the purposes of statistical analysis and evaluation of the WorkFirst program only.
Attachment A [of the TANF State Plan] is written certification by Governor Bob Ferguson that during the federal fiscal year the State will: • Establish and enforce standards and procedures to ensure that the State screens for and identifies WorkFirst participants with a history of family violence as defined under Social Security Act (while maintaining confidentiality). • Refer such individuals to counseling and supportive services and waive some requirements, such as time limit, work participation, and child support cooperation, in cases where compliance with such requirements would make it more difficult to escape family violence or unfairly penalize program participants.
(e) Establish goals and take action to prevent and reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with special emphasis on teenage pregnancies (section 402(a)(1)(A)(v) of the Social Security Act).
Following welfare reform legislation of the late ‘90s, the director of Washington’s Office of Financial Management established an interagency task force on unintended pregnancy to review existing research on the short and long-range costs, analyze the impact on the WorkFirst program, and implement a state strategy to reduce out-of-wedlock and unintended pregnancy.
DSHS, Health Care Authority, Department of Health, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and other state agencies established goals associated with this task force and have continued to take action to prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with special emphasis on teenage pregnancies. The focus is to decrease unintended pregnancy, empower families to choose if and when they have children, and increase access and decrease barriers to quality family planning services.
Through a federal waiver, called TAKE CHARGE, the State provides pre-pregnancy family planning services to citizen men and women with family incomes up to and including 260% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). The State also extends eligibility for family planning services to citizen women up to 260% of the FPL for a year after their pregnancy ends. Non-citizen women with Medicaid coverage for the birth of a child receive state-funded family planning services for one year after the end of their pregnancy. These women are NOT eligible for family planning services under the federally approved family planning waiver. Non-Medicaid, low-income men and women can also receive family planning services through Department of Health Title X-funded family planning clinics.