(a) The Department of Social Services shall provide safety net services for certain families identified as having significant barriers to employment and families who are at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program or no longer receiving program benefits. To be eligible for safety net services, such families shall: (1) Have been identified as having significant barriers to employment during the initial assessment by the department’s eligibility worker or during the first twelve months of employment services by an employment services case manager; (2) have made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment but have not been able to do so or be at risk of failing to complete the employment services program; (3) have exhausted their eligibility for temporary family assistance program benefits; or (4) not be eligible for six-month extensions of temporary family assistance benefits due to: (A) The receipt of two sanctions from the department during the first twenty months of the twenty-one-month time limit of said temporary family assistance program; or (B) the determination by the department that such a family has not made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment.

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(b) Said safety net shall consist of services provided through the existing community service delivery network with additional resources provided by the Department of Social Services. Services shall be provided in-kind or through vendor or voucher payment. Services may include the following: (1) Food, shelter, clothing and employment assistance; (2) eviction prevention; (3) an in-depth family needs assessment; (4) intensive case management that includes visits to the family’s home; (5) continuous monitoring for child abuse or neglect; and (6) for families at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program, individual performance contracts administered by the Labor Department that require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner.

(c) Families successfully meeting the program requirements established by the individual performance contracts in subdivision (6) of subsection (b) of this section prior to the end of the twenty-one-month time limit shall be considered to have made a good faith effort to comply with the requirements of the program for the purposes of qualifying for a six-month extension, provided they have made a good faith effort to comply with the individual performance contract or have not incurred a sanction subsequent to completing the individual performance contract.

(d) The Commissioner of Social Services shall implement policies and procedures necessary for the purposes of this section while in the process of adopting such policies and procedures in regulation form, provided the commissioner prints notice of intention to adopt the regulations in the Connecticut Law Journal within twenty days of implementing such policies and procedures. Policies and procedures implemented pursuant to this subsection shall be valid until the time final regulations are effective.