(1) Its social and child welfare programs shall provide assistance and benefits to persons of the State in proven need thereof and eligible for such assistance and benefits under the provisions of this title.

(2) It is the purpose of its social and child welfare laws to establish and support programs which contribute to the prevention of dependency and social maladjustment and contribute to the rehabilitation and protection of persons of the State.

(3) Assistance and benefits shall be administered promptly, with due regard for the preservation of family life, and without restriction of individual rights or discrimination on account of race, religion, political affiliation, or place of residence within the State.

(4) Assistance and benefits shall be so administered as to maintain and encourage dignity, self-respect, and self-reliance. It is the legislative intent that assistance granted shall be adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of health and decency based on current cost of living indices. Notwithstanding this subdivision, the Department will amend rules that establish new maximum Reach Up grant amounts only when the General Assembly has taken affirmative action to increase or decrease the Reach Up financial assistance appropriation.

(5) The programs of the Department for Children and Families shall be designed to strengthen family life for the care and protection of children; to assist and encourage the use by any family of all available personal and reasonable community resources to this end; and to provide substitute care of children only when the family, with the use of available resources, is unable to provide the necessary care and protection to ensure the right of any child to sound health and to normal physical, mental, spiritual, and moral development. (Added 1967, No. 147, § 1; amended 1973, No. 152 (Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. April 14, 1974; 1975, No. 132 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Feb. 5, 1976; 2003, No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 139a; 2013, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 20, 2014.)