Annual Clothing Allowance (ACA) for a Child in Santa Clara County

The main purpose of the ACA is to assist with the purchase of clothing at the beginning of the school year. An annual clothing allowance is issued for children and youths in Foster Care and Kin-GAP from August 1 to September 30, if otherwise eligible. CalSAWS has automated the process for eligible placements except for ARC cases.

  • Children who are moved from one placement to another between August 1 and September 30 are eligible for an initial clothing allowance, but are NOT eligible to receive the annual back-to-school clothing allowance.
  • FC EWs are responsible for reviewing the instructions to withhold the annual clothing allowance when an ICA has been issued within 6 months (See ICA Eligible Placements).
  • Only one ACA may be given in a fiscal year. The county fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30.

CalSAWS is designed to not automate ACA for some of the following reasons:

  • ARC cases. Program will provide FCE with an ARC case listing to have issuances manually generated.
  • Foster Care or Kin-GAP out-of-state placements
  • Foster Care or Kin-GAP out-of-county addresses
  • Foster Care child or youth placed in group homes or STRTPs
  • Foster care child or youth with BLO
  • Kin-GAP cases where the benefits are on “Hold” 
  • Foster Care or Kin-GAP cases that have potential overpayments
  • Cases receving Emergency Assistance, Emergency Caregiver or county-only funding.

After the mass update has run to authorize ACA, CalSAWS will provide a potential list of eligible placements that were not automated (exceptioned out). This list is provided to FCE for review and authorization. These cases must have the ACA issued through the Needs List page in CalSAWS.

ACA Eligible Placements

To be eligible for an ACA, a child or youth must be in one of the following types of foster care placements:

  • Foster home (with Resource Family Approval). This includes ARC cases. 
  • FFA. This does not include ISFC placements
  • Related or unrelated legal guardian receiving Foster Care
  • Contracted SARC (non-profit) as FFAs
  • Kin-GAP
  • FC or Kin-GAP in receipt of the Dual Agency Rate
  • SILP

Reminder: Non-dependent children living with their parents in a SILP placement are not eligible for ACA or ICA. The Infant Supplement is used to cover expenses of the non-dependent child.

Note: Placements not listed above require a “DFCS Special Funds Request” form (SCZ 414Z) to utilize county-only funding in order to pay ACA.

Rates for ACAs

The rates for Santa Clara County’s ACA are effective 9/1/2007, and are not eligible for the annual CNI rate increases. The rate to be paid is the county where the foster care youth resides. If the host county does not issue ACA, the Santa Clara County rates may be paid.

Kin-GAP ACAs are paid based on the financially responsible county. This payment may also be made to an out-of-state Kin-GAP placement. 

All Kin-GAP ACA are paid based on Santa Clara County Rates.

Note: To determine another California county’s ACA rate, the FC EW will access the following folder on the foster care shared drive at S:\Sharelib-DFCS\EW Tools\Resource\Rates\California (out-of-county).

 

Age Rate
Pre-School $69
School Age $141

Procedure

  1. CalSAWS
    1. Runs Annual Clothing Allowance COLA between August 1 and September 30.
    2. Generates Exception Report.
  2. FC Coordinator
    1. Reviews Exception Report.
    2. Drafts instructions for FCE.
    3. Forwards exception report and instructions to FCE SSPM.
  3. FCE SSPM
    1. Reviews list and directions.
    2. Forwards list to FCE for processing.
  4. FC EW
    1. Receives a list of cases that require ACA payment
    2. Authorizes payment when eligible
    3. Sends approval NOA to provider
    4. Clears MEDS/CalSAWS alerts
    5. Enters CalSAWS Journal and summarizes case actions
    6. Sends documents to Imaging.

Related Topics

Special Needs and Specialized Rates