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The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) issued a one-time non-assistance payment in August 2009 to defray the back-to-school costs for low-income New York households with children aged three through 17 eligible for temporary assistance (TA) and/or food stamp (FS) during the month of July 2009. A notice advised recipients of this payment to purchase such items as books, pencils, pens, notebooks, calculators, backpacks, shoes, school uniforms, pants, skirts, dresses and other essential clothes and school items.
The back-to-school payments are part of the federal TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (TECF) that was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The TECF has only limited allowable purposes, all of which are aimed at providing assistance to low-income households. One of these purposes is to provide low-income families with non-recurring one time payments such as the back-to-school payments. By working in a unique partnership with a private donor, New York was able to leverage $140 million in federal money. There was absolutely no possibility for using these funds for other fiscal relief. There was and will continue to be no local share for the cost of the one-time back-to-school payments or for the associated Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) issuance cost.
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