DN 891 North Dakota: Why This TANF Kinship Care Brochure Was Repealed

What DN 891 Was

DN 891 was a brochure and policy entry under North Dakota HHS section 400-19-165-100 that described the TANF Kinship Care Program — the specialized cash assistance pathway for relative caregivers whose children were placed through a child welfare intervention. For years, caseworkers and caregivers referenced DN 891 as the entry point for kinship-specific TANF benefits.

Search engines still surface DN 891 as if it's current. It isn't.

What Changed in April 2024

Effective April 1, 2024, the DN 891 brochure entry was officially repealed. The TANF Kinship Care program itself did not disappear — it continues to operate under ND HHS policy manual section 400-19-140. What changed is the administrative document and the application process.

DN 891 was a brochure, not an application form. Caregivers no longer need to request or submit it as part of an application. Submitting an outdated DN 891 reference to a Human Service Zone eligibility worker will cause confusion and may delay your application.

How to Apply Now

For child-only TANF (the pathway most informal kinship caregivers use), submit the standard unified application through the North Dakota HHS Self-Service Portal online or by mailing a paper application to the Customer Support Center (P.O. Box 5562, Bismarck, ND 58506).

For TANF Kinship Care specifically, a court order must place the child's care, custody, and control with a North Dakota Human Service Zone, the Division of Juvenile Services, or a North Dakota Tribal Agency. The child must be placed with a relative within the fifth degree. The agency with custody completes the placement paperwork, and the signed application is processed by the Human Service Zone.

Why This Matters

If you've been searching for "DN 891" online and landing on archived policy pages, those results are leading you astray. The program exists; the form doesn't. Using the current application process saves time and avoids the frustrating experience of showing up at a Zone office with a repealed document.

The caregiver's income is excluded in a child-only grant, and only the child's own resources count. The TANF financial test compares countable income with the Basic Standard of Need for the child-only unit; the current standard is $366 per month for a one-child unit with no eligible caretaker, with other amounts for larger units.

For the up-to-date application process, the correct forms, and a walkthrough of every cash and non-cash benefit available to kinship caregivers in North Dakota, the North Dakota Kinship Financial Help guide covers each program with current policy references.

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