712-1          DEFINITION OF A CARETAKER RELATIVE

A caretaker relative is a person who is related to the dependent child by full or half-blood and who is within the fifth degree of kinship to the child.

A caretaker relative is a person in one of the following groups:

• Stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, or stepsister.
• Persons who legally adopt a child or his parent as well as the natural and other legally adopted children of such persons, and other relatives of the adoptive parents in accordance with state law.
• Spouses of any persons named above, even after the marriage is terminated by death or divorce.
• Biological relatives, whose legal and financial relationship to the dependent child have been severed through adoption.
• Natural parent(s), whose legal and financial relationship to the dependent child has been severed through adoption.

Note:

A natural parent will ALWAYS be a mandatory household member to a dependent child when living at the same residence, even if their legal and financial relationship to said child has been severed through an adoption.

This means if a dependent child's adoptive parent allows the natural parent to live in the home, the adoptive parent is no longer eligible to receive ATAPAlaska Temporary Assistance Program on behalf of the adopted child.

A caretaker relative does not include a guardian, friend, neighbor, non-related godparent, second cousin, or a person given the responsibility to care for a dependent child. ATAPAlaska Temporary Assistance Program eligibility does not exist for an applicant or his or her children unless the applicant can demonstrate that he or she fits into one of the groups listed above, or meets temporary eligibility criteria for cultural adoption.

Verification Note:

The caretaker relationship between a mother and child needs to be verified only when the:

- Information is questionable;
- Child was born in another state; or
- Child is adopted.

All other caretaker relationships, including the paternal relationship between a father and child, must be verified.

When verification is necessary and not readily available in the case file, the WinStar interface should be the first resource used by a caseworker to verify the relationship between a parent and child.

Only NCPNon Custodial Parent's listed under a child's CSSDChild Support Services Division member ID are guaranteed to list a biological or legal parent. All case ID's listed under a child in WinStar should be checked in an attempt to confirm both the maternal and paternal relationship with a child. For instruction regarding how to read WinStar's relationship coding, refer to the Interface User Guide.

As always, if there is conflicting or questionable information, additional verification must be pursued.

When unable to verify relationships using the WinStar interface, official documents should be sought and copies made for the case record. In some cases, a chain of several documents may be necessary. If documentary evidence is not available, other sources of verification may be acceptable. Refer to ATAPAlaska Temporary Assistance Program MS 712-2 A regarding verification procedures for caretaker relationships.

In some cases where verification is required, and the caseworker has no reason to question the relationship, the applicant's statement of the relationship may be accepted temporarily at application and verified later. See ATAPAlaska Temporary Assistance Program MS 700-5.