Maryland
Agency: Maryland Department of Human Resources
Secretary: Lynda G. Fox
Public Information Number: (410) 767-7758
Administration of Human Services
Social services, public assistance, and the regulation of child-care programs in Maryland are administered by the Family Investment, Social Services, Child Care, and Community Services Administrations of the Maryland Department of Human Resources, with federal-state and some local funding. These programs are operated through 24 local Departments of Social Services, located in 23 counties and in Baltimore, an independent city.
The mandatory state supplement to the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI/S) is administered by the Social Security Administration; the optional supplement is administered by the department's Family Investment Administration. The Transitional Emergency Medical and Housing Assistance Program is state administered and locally delivered with state funding.
Assistance and Services
Assistance programs administered by the Family Investment Administration include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), including emergency assistance to families with children, which is federal-state funded; Food Stamps (FS); and the optional supplement to SSI for persons in licensed domiciliary-care facilities. The Community Services Administration administers the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is responsible for Medicaid (MAP) and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Service programs administered by the Social Services Administration include child welfare (CA/N, CW); services to families (SF); and services to families with children, including protective services (CPS), intensive family services, family preservation and support services (FP/FS), foster care/adoption assistance (FC/AA), and adoption services. The Social Services Administration licenses child-caring agencies, institutions, and group homes. The Child Support Enforcement Administration, under Title IV-D, locates absent parents, establishes paternity and court orders for support, and enforces delinquent support.
Service programs administered by the Community Services Administration include energy assistance; services to refugees; services to adults (SA), including adult protective services (APS); social services to adults; in-home care services; certified adult residential environment placement and respite care; legal services for children in need of assistance; funding and administrative support for shelter; and support services for homeless persons and for women, including battered spouse, rape crisis, displaced homemaker, shelter and transitional housing for homeless women, crime victims assistance, and family violence programs; and emergency food assistance.
The Purchase of Care Program (day care for fewer than 24 hours), the regulation of child-care centers and family child-care homes, the Child Care Development Fund, and the Dependent Care Grant are administered by the Child Care Administration.
Related state agencies are responsible for state veterans services (VET); services to the aged under the Older Americans Act (OA); the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCHBG); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the Preventive Health Services Block Grant (PHSBG); mental retardation programs (MR); the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Block Grant (ADAMHBG); youth authority, including probation and parole (YA, Y-PRO, Y-PAR); vocational rehabilitation (VR); vocational rehabilitation for the blind (VRB); the correctional program for adults, including probation and parole (CP, PRO, PAR); the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG); and the weatherization assistance program.
Go to the Maryland Department of Human Resources’ web site.
Find out more about whom to contact in this state in the 1998/99 Public Human Services Directory.