(a) Except for a child receiving or needing protective services as described in §809.49 of this chapter, for a child to be eligible to receive child care services, at the time of eligibility determination or redetermination, a Board shall ensure that the child:
  (1) meets one of the following age requirements:
    (A) be under 13 years of age; or
    (B) be a child with disabilities under 19 years of age;
  (2) is a United States citizen or legal immigrant as determined under applicable federal laws, regulations, and guidelines; and
  (3) resides with:
    (A) a family within the Board's workforce area:
      (i) whose income does not exceed 85 percent of the state median income (SMI) for a family of the same size; and
      (ii) whose assets do not exceed $1,000,000 as certified by a family member; or
      (iii) that meets the definition of experiencing homelessness as defined in §809.2 of this chapter.
    (B) parents who require child care in order to work, including job search, or attend a job training or educational program; or
    (C) a person standing in loco parentis for the child while the child's parent is on military deployment and the deployed military parent's income does not exceed the limits set forth in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph.
(b) A Board shall ensure that child care services while the parent is enrolled full-time in a postsecondary undergraduate educational program is provided for, but does not exceed, a cumulative total of 60 months.
(c) A Board may establish a policy to allow parents attending a program that leads to an undergraduate degree from an institution of higher education to be exempt from residing with the child as defined in §809.2 of this chapter.

Source Note: The provisions of this §809.41 adopted to be effective January 29, 2007, 32 TexReg 336; amended to be effective June 22, 2009, 34 TexReg 4197; amended to be effective January 8, 2013, 38 TexReg 155; amended to be effective October 1, 2016, 41 TexReg 7529; amended to be effective October 3, 2022, 47 TexReg 6437