Mississippi Code Title 43. Public Welfare § 43-17-3

(a) “State Department” means the State Department of Human Services.

(b) “County department” means the county department of human services and the county director of human services of each of the several counties in this state.

(c) “Dependent child” means a needy child under the age of eighteen (18), who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of the death, continued absence from the home, or physical or mental incapacity of a parent, or the unemployment of the parent who is the principal earner, and who is living with his caretaker relative, in a place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives as his or their own home, or who is placed in foster care pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

(d) “Caretaker relative” means a person who is providing care to a child qualified for and receiving assistance and who is the child's father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt or any blood relative, including those of half-blood, and including first cousins or first cousins once removed, nephews, or nieces, and persons of preceding generations as denoted by the prefix of grand, great, or great-great, including great-great-great-grandparents, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother and stepsister, persons who legally adopt a child or his parent, as well as the natural and other legally adopted children of such persons, and spouses of any persons named in the above groups. For the purposes of this chapter, all such relatives shall qualify as such whether the relationship be acquired by birth or adoption, and neither divorce nor death shall terminate any such relationship.

(e) “Assistance” means payment, including vendor or “in kind” payment to a TANF recipient, with respect to a dependent child or children paid to caretaker relatives or to other approved persons, agencies, associations, corporations or institutions providing medical or foster care, maintenance, work or training programs as authorized by the federal Social Security Act, as amended, to strengthen family life through services to children, foster care for children, work programs and services aimed at restoring individuals to independence and self-support; administrative costs, physical examinations, day care or child care arrangements essential to work programs.

(f) “Child's budget” means that mathematical computation used by county human service departments by which the Mississippi Standard of Need is compared to the income and resources of a family unit to determine the amount, if any, of assistance to which each family unit may be entitled, with full consideration given to the number of members in a family unit.