CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: supportive services.

(1) Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing law generally requires a recipient of CalWORKs benefits to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility for aid. Existing law requires that necessary supportive services be available to participants in welfare-to-work activities, including transportation costs and ancillary expenses, which include the cost of books, as provided in the welfare-to-work plan entered into between the county and the participant. This bill would require that a standard allowance for transportation costs be advanced to a participant at the beginning of each month in the amount of $100 per month. The bill would also require that a participant who has been assigned to an educational activity in a postsecondary school full time, as defined by the school, receive a standard allowance of $500 for books and supplies, or $250 if the participant has been assigned to an educational activity part time, as defined by the school, adjusted annually as specified. The bill would require the educational allowance to be paid at least 15 days before the start of the semester. The bill would authorize the participant to opt out of these standard allowances at any time and make a reimbursement claim for actual costs, and to submit this claim to the county by mail, in person, or, if the county already has the technological capacity to do so, via the county's Internet Web site. By increasing the duties of counties administering these services, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.