Determine eligibility for IV-E Foster Care Maintenance

Before determining a child's eligibility for IV-E Foster Care Maintenance, you must wait until a judicially determined custody type is recorded for the child, as well as the applicable "best interest" and "reasonable efforts" rulings.

A legal finding of "contrary to the welfare/placement is in the child's best interest and initial reasonable efforts" are IV-E foster care eligibility requirements in addition to the 1996 AFDC requirements. The earliest date a child may qualify for a IV-E FCM payment is the first month the initial reasonable efforts legal finding is obtained.

For example, if the legal status "Officer Acceptance" is recorded on March 1, 2011, the pending Initial IV-E FCM eligibility determination record will reflect an effective date of 03/01/2011. If the agency then receives a Temporary Court Order and the rulings on March 2, you would enter 03/02/2011 for the effective date.

If the child is eligible for FCM, the Department is generally reimbursed for payments made during a placement episode. See Determine reimbursability for IV-E FCM.

Process Overview

Determine a child's eligibility for IV-E FCM as follows:

1. From the Home screen, click Financial > Eligibility. The Child Selection screen appears.

2. Click Person Search to locate and select the child whose eligibility you want to determine. The Person Search screen appears.

3. Enter search criteria and click Search. The matching records appear in the results grid.

4. Click the select link for the child you want to update. The Program Eligibility screen appears.

5. Click Person Search to locate and select the child whose eligibility you want to determine. After you select the child, the screen displays histories of the eligibility and reimbursability records.

6. Click the select link for a record with "Pending" status. The Eligibility Details screen Summary tab appears.
   
   The Summary tab displays basic information related to eligibility requirements. The system lists the requirements with a status of "Incomplete" when you first open this screen. After you record details for the specific requirements, the system updates the status.

7. Enter the month and year in the AFDC Eligibility Month. This should be the month and year of the custody effective date.Click Next Task> below on click the link in step 6.

8. Complete requirements 1 to 6.

9. Review or record assistance unit information.

10. Record deprivation/PWE information.

11. Complete the appropriate budget worksheet.

12. Verify income and resource summaries.

13. Run the eligibility determination.