The General Assembly declares: that it is the policy of this State to promote family stability, to preserve family unity, and to help families achieve and maintain self-reliance by: responding to financial and family crisis through direct provision of family counseling and supportive services; and referral to appropriate community resources; and this State has the responsibility to provide services that prevent the kind of family dissolution and breakdown that requires protective services or out-of-home placement.

To implement the policies set forth in this subtitle, the Secretary shall establish in each local department a program of services to families with children. The program shall be available to: those families who are receiving temporary cash assistance or Supplemental Security Income; and those families whose gross income is 80% or less of this State’s median income adjusted for family size in accordance with regulations adopted by the Social Services Administration. For purposes of this subtitle, services to families with children are: functional services to help a family resolve a situational crisis brought on by catastrophe, deprivation of income, lack of shelter, physical illness, mental illness, death, desertion, or abandonment; family counseling: to resolve marital conflict, familial conflict, and parent-child relationship problems; and to teach child care and development and parenting skills; information and referral services to teach families how to locate and use community services, including health care services; and home management services to teach the management of household duties and responsibilities, including budgeting skills.

The Department of Human Services shall continue to develop and maintain a program to carry out the purposes of this subtitle in each local department. In implementing the program, the Department of Human Services shall: adopt, by regulation, guidelines for implementing the program in each local department; continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the program; and to the extent possible, coordinate for families with children the delivery of child care, health, educational, mental health, employment, housing, and crisis services provided by public and private agencies.