Family Support Act of 1988

Family Welfare Reform Act of 1987 - Declares that, hereafter, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (part A of title IV of the Social Security Act) shall be known as the Family Support Program and the aid paid to needy families with dependent children shall be called family support supplements. Title I: National Education, Training, and Work (Network) Program - Amends the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program to require States to establish an education, training, and work program (program) which helps needy children and parents avoid long-term welfare dependence. Requires private sector involvement in planning and Program design to assure that participants are trained for jobs that will actually be available in the community. Requires adult recipients of family support supplements to participate in the Program if it is available in the political subdivision where he or she resides and State resources otherwise permit. Directs the State to fully inform such recipients of the opportunities offered under the Program. Lists recipients who are exempt from mandatory participation in the Program, including individuals who: (1) are ill, incapacitated, pregnant, or age 60 or older; (2) are needed at home due to the illness or incapacity of another family member; (3) work 20 or more hours a week; or (4) care for a child under age six, but such exception shall apply to only one parent in two-parent families. Authorizes States to require the participation of an otherwise exempt parent or relative of a child under age six if day or infant care is guaranteed by the State and participation is on a part-time basis. Directs States to actively encourage exempt supplement recipients to participate in the Program. Provides that if the adult family caretaker is attending a school or a course in vocational or technical training designed to lead to employment when he or she would otherwise commence participation in the Program, such attendance may constitute satisfactory participation in the Program, though the costs of such school or training shall not be covered by the Family Support Program. Directs States to give priority in Program participation to families: (1) with teenage parents and parents who were under age 18 when their first child was born; (2) that have been receiving family support supplements continuously for two or more years; and (3) with children under age six. Requires States to make an initial assessment of the educational needs, skills, and employability of each Program participant and on that basis develop an employability plan for the participant's family which, to the maximum extent possible, reflects the participant's preferences. Requires each participant to then negotiate a contract with the State which specifies the duration of his or her participation as well as the activities the State will conduct and services it will provide in the course of such participation. Directs the State to assign a case manager to each participating family who is responsible for obtaining, on the family's behalf, any other services which may assure the family's effective participation. Requires State Programs to provide a broad range of services and activities, including: (1) high school or equivalent education; (2) remedial education; (3) job search, training and placement services; and (4) counseling, information, and referral for participants experiencing personal and family problems which may be affecting their ability to work. Requires that children in participating families be encouraged to engage in the education or training activities available under the Program and be provided with additional services and incentives designed to keep them in school and help them obtain marketable job skills. Requires each work assignment to be consistent with the physical capacity, skills, experience, health, family responsibilities, and place of residence of each participant. Prohibits work assignments which displace a currently employed worker or position, impair existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements, or fill the job of a worker who has been laid off or fired. Establishes a complaint procedure for employees who allege that such prohibitions have been violated. Prohibits States from requiring participants to work at less than the minimum wage or accept a job which would result in a loss of income to the participant or his or her family. Requires that Program activities be coordinated with Job Training Partnership Act programs and any other relevant employment, training, and education programs available in the State. Authorizes any State to institute a work supplementation program under which such State reserves that sums which would otherwise be payable to program participants as family support supplements and uses such sums instead to subsidize jobs for such participants. Authorizes any State to establish a community work experience program to provide experience and training for individuals not otherwise able to obtain employment. Limits such programs to projects which serve a useful public purpose utilizing, if possible, the participant's prior training, experience, and skills. Limits community work program participants to work or training (or both) for up to 12 months or unpaid work experience or training for up to three months. Requires that: (1) a reassessment be made and a new employability plan developed for participants who do not obtain employment after participation in a community work program; and (2) other Program activities be coordinated with the community work program so that job placement has priority over participation in such program. Prohibits an individual from participating in job search without participating in one or more other Program services or activities if job search has continued for eight weeks or longer without the individual obtaining a job. Provides that when a mandatory Program participant fails without good cause to comply with any requirement imposed on his or her participation in such Program: (1) such participant's needs shall not be taken into account in determining the family support supplement; or (2) supplements shall be denied to all family members until the participant complys. Continues sanctions for a minimum of three months if the participant failed to comply on a previous occasion. Directs States, after three months of a participant's noncompliance, to remind the participant in writing of his or her option to end the sanction. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) publish final regulations and performance standards for such Programs within one year of this Act's enactment; (2) develop a legislative proposal for modifying the Federal AFDC matching rate so that it reflects the relative effectiveness of the various States in carrying out the Programs; and (3) provide for the continuing evaluation of State Programs and the conduct of research on making such Programs more effective. Directs the Secretary to establish uniform reporting requirements requiring each State to periodically furnish Program information to the Secretary, including the average monthly number and types of families assisted under each Program service and activity, the amounts expended on such families, and the length of time for which such families are assisted. Sets the federal matching rate at 75 percent of the expenditures for the operation and administration of the State Program if at least three-fifths of the non-Federal share is contributed in cash and at 50 percent if less than such amount is in cash. Broadens the definition of a "dependent child" to authorize States to provide benefits for individuals under age 21 who are regularly attending a course of higher, secondary, or primary education or vocational or technical training. Authorizes the Secretary to prescribe a standard for determining whether an individual is employed at the time of his or her application for family support supplements which is based upon whether or not the applicant has performed a specific number of hours of work within a designated period. Amends title XI (General Provisions) of the Act to authorize States to conduct demonstration projects testing financial incentives and interdisciplinary approaches to reducing school dropouts, encouraging skill development, and avoiding the welfare dependence of children receiving family support supplements. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States to assist in financing such projects. Title II: Day Care, Transportation, and Other Work-Related Expenses - Requires States to either: (1) provide day care for dependent children and incapacitated individuals living in the same home as a dependent child; or (2) reimburse the caretaker relative for the cost of such care, if and to the extent that such care is directly related to an individual's participation in the Program, reasonably necessary for such participation, and cost-effective. Provides coverage for certain transportation and other work-related costs. Continues day care coverage for one year after a family's eligibility for support supplements ceases, but permits States to reduce such coverage on the basis of a family's ability to pay. Directs States to regularly assess the availability and reliability of child care services available to Program participants, and, when necessary, develop new child care resources. Title III: Real Work Incentives - Excludes, in determining a family's eligibility for supplement payments: (1) the earned income of students who are not full-time employees; (2) $100 plus 25 percent of any family member's monthly earned income; (3) $100 of monthly family support payments; and (4) earned income credits payable to the family under the Internal Revenue Code. Prohibits application of the $100 and 25 percent earned income exclusion in the case of individuals who, without good cause: (1) terminate their employment or reduce their income; (2) refuse a bona fide offer of employment; or (3) fail to make a timely report of their monthly earned income. Authorizes States to increase the amount of an individual's earned income excluded under this Act in making family support supplement eligibility determinations. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude any benefit provided under any Federal, State, or local governmental assistance program for the support of the individual or for maintenance of the household in determining whether a taxpayer is providing such support or maintenance. Title IV: Transitional Services for Families - Requires a State to continue a family's Medicaid (title XIX of the Act) eligibility for one year (a State may provide a two-year continuance of such eligibility) after the family's eligibility for family support supplements ends, unless such eligibility was terminated due to fraud or the imposition of a sanction. Terminates extended Medicaid coverage if the family ceases to include a dependent child or a family member engages in certain conduct which would warrant sanctions under the Family Support Program. Title V: Child Support Enforcement Amendments - Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Act to direct States to: (1) establish binding guidelines for child support award determinations (currently, such guidelines need not be binding); and (2) periodically review and update all child support orders to ensure that they continue to comply with child support award guidelines. Requires States to abide by State procedural due process requirements when updating child support awards and notify absent parents of their right to contest the award. Requires that, to the extent possible, the paternity of a child be established at birth. Excludes the cost of paternity determinations as well as the cost of certain interstate child support enforcement projects from the computation of the incentive payment to a State for collecting child support payments. Amends title XI (General Provisions) of the Act to authorize States to conduct demonstration projects identifying and testing possible solutions to problems arising in connection with visitation by absent parents. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States to assist in financing such projects. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish time limits within which a State must respond to requests for assistance in locating absent parents or establishing paternity, and begin proceedings to establish child support awards. Makes it mandatory that States establish an automatic data processing and information retrieval system for the child support enforcement and establishment of paternity determination process. Title VI: Pro-Family Welfare Policies - Requires States to pay family support supplements with respect to dependent children of unemployed parents in two-parent families. Includes within the definition "quarter of work", for the purpose of determining a family's eligibility for assistance, the parent's: (1) full-time attendance as an elementary or secondary school student; (2) full-time attendance in a vocational or technical training course; and (3) participation in a Job Training Partnership Act education or training program. Directs States to assign an individual case manager to each family receiving family support supplements which is headed by a minor parent. Requires unmarried minor parents to live with a parent, legal guardian, other adult relative, or in a foster home, maternity home, or other supportive living arrangement, unless the State determines that, given specified circumstances, it is impossible or inappropriate for them to do so. Treats the minor parent and minor parent's children as a family separate from the parent and parent's children with whom the minor parent resides in determining the minor parent's eligibility for supplement payments. Authorizes States to condition a minor parent's eligibility on his or her: (1) part-time school attendance; or (2) training in parenting and family living skills. Sets the Federal share of the cost of providing case management services for minor parents at 75 percent. Title VII: Benefit Improvements - Directs each State to re-evaluate annually its need and payment standard under the Family Support Program, giving particular attention to whether the amount it has assumed to be necessary for shelter is adequate. Sets forth reporting requirements. Increases the Federal share of a State's Family Support program costs if such State increases the level of family support supplement payments after FY 1987. Sets a mandatory State Family Support program benefit level to be implemented five years after this Act's enactment. Title VIII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture to appoint an advisory group to make recommendations to the President and the Congress within one year of this Act's enactment regarding the coordination of the food stamp program under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 and the Family Support Program. Directs the Secretary to establish uniform reporting requirements requiring each State to periodically furnish the Secretary with information regarding the implementation of the Family Support Program.