Title 71, Welfare

To be eligible, demonstration project participants must be a member of a group that meets twice a month to make contributions into their individual development accounts (IDAs) and receive support, training and technical assistance to ensure they secure and maintain employment whi…

This part may be cited as the “Families First Act of 1996.”

Continuation of the families first program is subject to, and limited by, the availability of federal funds that may be made available to the state of Tennessee by congress and the United States department of health and human services, or its successor agency.

(a) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Assistance” means, unless otherwise required by the context, temporary assistance;(2) “Caretaker relative” means the father, mother, grandfather or grandmother of any degree, brother or sister of the whole or ha…

(a) (1) A family shall be eligible for temporary assistance pursuant to this part if:(A) A dependent child resides in this state with a caretaker relative in that family, or an individual who applies for temporary assistance is pregnant, or as otherwise defined by the department;…

(a) In determining eligibility under § 71-3-104 for, and amounts of, grants under the temporary assistance program, the department of human services shall adopt rules and regulations establishing a standard of need that reflects the true cost of the following, less any discounts …

(a) The department shall administer the families first program established by this part. (b) The commissioner has the authority to organize the department in any manner necessary as permitted by law, to establish any necessary county or district or regional offices and to appoint…

(a) The commissioner of human services is authorized, pursuant to the requirements of subsections (b) and (c), to immediately implement changes necessary as a result of federal legislation designed to reform welfare programs that are, or may be in the future, administered by the …

(a) Except for a child-only grant for temporary assistance, the department shall evaluate appropriate cases to determine if a diversion grant would be effective in meeting a family's immediate and compelling need and prevent the family from going on temporary assistance or to ass…

The commissioner of human services has the authority to establish a system for distribution of any benefits provided by this part, or under the continued provisions of federal law and regulations as provided under § 71-3-108, by means of electronic benefits transfer system and to…

This part is known and may be cited as the “CoverKids Act of 2006.”

(1) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Department” means the department of finance and administration;(2) “Enrollee” means an individual who is eligible and enrolled in the program;(3) “Program” means any program established to provide health coverag…

The purpose of this part is to create a program to provide health care coverage for uninsured children who are not eligible for health care services under any part of Tennessee's medicaid program, either pursuant to the medicaid state plan or pursuant to any medicaid waivers secu…

The department is authorized to establish, administer, and monitor a program to provide health care coverage to uninsured children pursuant to Title XXI (42 U.S.C. § 1397aa et seq.). The department may not use money appropriated for this program to expand eligibility criteria for…

The department is authorized to seek federal approval for the program, pursuant to Title XXI (42 U.S.C. § 1397aa et seq.), through a state plan, state plan amendment or request for federal waivers.

(a) The department shall adopt rules and regulations to establish eligibility criteria for the program, which shall limit eligibility to an individual who:(1) Is eighteen (18) years of age or younger;(2) Has a combined family income at a level to be determined by the department;(…

The department is authorized to provide health care coverage for pregnant women and may provide the coverage consistent with this part, except that no age-related eligibility restrictions shall apply to pregnant women.

(a) The department may administer the program directly or contract with insurance companies, managed care plans or other entities to provide services to enrollees. Payments for services to contracted entities may require the contractor to assume full or partial risk for the cost …

The commissioner of finance and administration and the comptroller of the treasury have the duty and authority to review and audit such expenditure of funds as may be made under this part. Nothing in this section shall limit the authority of the commissioner of finance and admini…

(a) The department shall appropriately train and supervise all employees and other persons who are responsible for developing, evaluating and managing personal responsibility plans for recipients of temporary assistance. Such training and supervision shall include, but not be lim…

(a) The department may adopt additional rules and regulations governing the program, including, but not limited to, any rules or regulations necessary to comply with or to implement any federal requirement, federal waiver or state plan governing the program. The department is aut…

This part shall be reviewed annually by the commerce and labor committee of the senate, the insurance committee of the house of representatives, the finance, ways and means committee of the senate and the finance, ways and means committee of the house of representatives, and thes…

This part shall be repealed on June 30, 2030.

As a part of the process for redetermining an enrollee's eligibility for the program, the department shall establish a procedure that sends an email notice to the enrollee, or the parent or guardian of the enrollee, that the enrollee must redetermine eligibility for the program. …

Any individual development accounts or other such accounts established for the benefit of recipients under this part or related programs shall be administered as approved by the state treasurer, who shall prescribe investment procedures for the corpus of such funds in a manner th…

Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, to the extent permitted by federal law, the value of federal veterans education benefits received by an applicant shall not be included as any form of income when making eligibility determinations for assistance under this part…

All assistance granted under this part shall be deemed to be granted and to be held subject to any amending or repealing statute that may hereafter be passed, and no recipient shall have any claim for compensation, or otherwise, by reason of such recipient's assistance being affe…

(a) It is unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation either to charge or to receive, directly or indirectly, anything of value for assisting any person in making application to the proper authorities of this state, or any of them, for relief or assistance under any statutes of…

(a) Except as permitted by §§ 71-1-117 and 71-1-118, it is unlawful for any person, except for purposes directly connected with the administration of this part, to solicit, disclose, receive, make use of, authorize or knowingly permit, participate in, or acquiesce in the use of a…

(a) A person commits an offense who, knowingly, obtains, or attempts to obtain, or aids, or abets any person to obtain, by means of a willfully false statement, representation, or impersonation, or by any other fraudulent means or in any manner not authorized by this part, or by …

(1) For the purposes of this part:(1) “Caretaker relative” means the father, mother, grandfather or grandmother of any degree, brother or sister of the whole or half-blood, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, aunt or uncle of any degree, first cousin, nephew or niece…

(a) The department of human services shall develop a plan to implement a program of suspicion-based drug testing for each applicant who is otherwise eligible for temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), or its successor program. (b) (1) Dependent children under eighteen (1…

The department shall submit to the health and welfare committee of the senate and the health committee of the house of representatives its final plan and proposed rules for administration of the drug testing program for TANF applicants by January 15, 2014, and shall implement the…

(a) All information, interviews, reports, statements, memoranda and drug test results, written or otherwise, received by the department as part of the drug testing program established by this part shall be confidential and not subject to disclosure, and may not be used or receive…

(a) The commissioner of human services is authorized to adopt rules, pursuant to the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, necessary for the administration of this part, and shall have rulemaking authority to promulgate any rules to carry out the …

An applicant whose drug test result is confirmed as positive in accordance with this part shall not, because of that result alone, be deemed to have a handicap or disability as defined under federal, state or local handicap and disability discrimination laws.

Assistance granted under this part shall not be transferable or assignable at law or in equity, and none of the money paid or payable under this part shall be subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment or other legal process, or to the operation of any bankruptcy or inso…

Whenever any dependent spouse or dependent child shall make an application to the county office of the department for an aid and services to needy families with children grant, and an investigation of the circumstances of the applicant reveals that the applicant was put in such n…

(a) All payments made by the department to such spouse or dependent child shall be recoverable against the deserting spouse or parents by the state as a debt due to the state, and such recovered payments shall be deposited by the state treasurer to the credit of the aid and servi…

(a) (1) Each applicant or recipient who receives or authorizes payment of public or temporary assistance pursuant to Title IV-A or IV-E of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 601 et seq. and 42 U.S.C. § 670 et seq.), respectively, or any successor program providing temporary ass…

(a) The district attorneys general have the authority, within budgetary limitations, to establish child support enforcement programs within their judicial districts. (b) Such authority includes:(1) The hiring of clerical and professional staffs;(2) The entering into contracts wit…

(a) For the purposes of this section, the term “public assistance benefits” means money or property provided directly or indirectly to eligible persons through the temporary assistance to needy families program. (b) (1) A recipient of public assistance benefits shall not knowingl…

The county legislative body may bind out as apprentices suitable orphan children, or the children of any person unable to provide for their support, until eighteen (18) years of age.

The county legislative body may bind out illegitimate children in the same way as orphans, upon its satisfactorily appearing that the mother of such illegitimate children disregards their moral and mental culture, and either keeps or lives in a house of ill fame, and upon its fur…

For the purpose of indemnifying the county against charges for the maintenance of illegitimate children, the father, if the father can be ascertained, is liable to proceedings as provided in title 36, chapter 2.

(a) When any child has been placed in any institution organized for the purpose of maintaining, supporting, and educating orphans or destitute children, with the consent of its parents, guardian, or custodian, no parent, guardian, or other person shall have the right to take the …