Comments? Campfield Tweaks Welfare/Parental Responsibilities Bill By Tom Humphrey Posted March 30, 2014 at 5:53 p.m. NASHVILLE — Sen. Stacey Campfield and Rep. Vance Dennis, who last year pushed a controversial bill that could have reduced welfare payments in Tennessee to parents whose children performed poorly in school, have a new proposal they say should increase parental involvement in education without any benefit penalties. As amended before approval last week by committees in both the House and Senate, the bill (SB1851) will modify the “personal responsibility plan” that parents receiving benefits under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program must sign. The new language will require the parent or guardian to either attend two or more parent-teacher conferences per year or attend an eight-hour “parenting class.” A third option would be to participate “in such support services that the child may need as determined” by a Department of Human Services representative “to overcome any school, family or other barriers that may interfere with the child’s and the family’s ability to be successful,” according to a legislative staff summary. One version of last year’s bill by the two legislators called for benefit cuts for parents of a children failing a grade unless they attended a teacher conference or attended a parenting class. That measure was debated on the Senate floor, then shelved by Campfield, R-Knoxville, when it became apparent that the measure lacked the votes needed for passage. The senator said at the time he hoped to come back with a revised proposal that could win support. An earlier version of this year’s bill would have provided incentive payments for parents’ with a child showing improvement in school work. But that was scrapped in committee in favor of simply modifying the “personal responsibility plan.” Dennis, R-Savannah, and Campfield both said the goal is to increase parental involvement and praised DHS officials for collaborating with them to draft the revised bill. Campfield’s bill was approved by the Senate Health Committee 5-2 with one member abstaining. Dennis won approval of the House Health Subcommittee on a 6-2 vote.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:13:41 +0000
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