California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - September 24, 1996

This ACL revises Sneede v. Coye procedures pursuant to the November 16, 1995 U.S. District Court order in Gamma v. Belshé (Gamma).

The Gamma lawsuit challenged specific aspects of the procedures enacted by CDHS to comply with court orders issued in Sneede. To minimize the Sneede impact, one of the plaintiffs argued that CDHS should not deem income from a financially responsible relative to a child in a separate MBU until a sufficient amount of the responsible relative’s income has been allocated to meet his or her own needs. The court agreed.

Each parent is now allowed a deduction for his/her needs prior to the allocating of income to the remaining family members for whom they are responsible. Each parent will be allowed a $600 income deduction for his/her needs [which represents the maintenance need income level (MNIL) for 1 prior to equally allocating income to the family members for whom he/she is responsible (excluding himself/herself). The parent will not receive any portion of the allocation. The $600 or the parent’s total net income if less than $600 will be used in determining the share of cost for the parent’s MBU.

Counties must implement Gamma, for new applications, no later than July 22, 1996.

Counties must reevaluate Sneede cases retroactive to November 1995, no later than July 22, 1997.