H.B. No. 1217
AN ACT
relating to certain reporting requirements of the Department of
Family and Protective Services regarding child protection,
including reporting information for certain foster children who are
missing or are victims of sex trafficking.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 264.017 to read as follows:
Sec. 264.017. REQUIRED REPORTING. (a) The department
shall prepare and disseminate a report of statistics by county
relating to key performance measures and data elements for child
protection.
(b) The department shall provide the report required by
Subsection (a) to the legislature and shall publish the report and
make the report available electronically to the public not later
than February 1 of each year. The report must include, with respect
to the preceding year:
(1) information on the number and disposition of
reports of child abuse and neglect received by the department;
(2) information on the number of clients for whom the
department took protective action, including investigations,
alternative responses, and court-ordered removals;
(3) information on the number of clients for whom the
department provided services in each program administered by the
child protective services division, including investigations,
alternative responses, family-based safety services,
conservatorship, post-adoption services, and transitional living
services;
(4) the number of children in this state who died as a
result of child abuse or neglect;
(5) the number of children described by Subdivision
(4) for whom the department was the children's managing conservator
at the time of death;
(6) information on the timeliness of the department's
initial contact in an investigation or alternative response;
(7) information on the response time by the department
in commencing services to families and children for whom an
allegation of child abuse or neglect has been made;
(8) information regarding child protection staffing
and caseloads by program area;
(9) information on the permanency goals in place and
achieved for children in the managing conservatorship of the
department, including information on the timeliness of achieving
the goals, the stability of the children's placement in foster
care, and the proximity of placements to the children's home
counties; and
(10) the number of children who suffer from a severe
emotional disturbance and for whom the department is appointed
managing conservator, including statistics on appointments as
joint managing conservator, due to an individual voluntarily
relinquishing custody of a child solely to obtain mental health
services for the child.
(c) Not later than September 1 of each year, the department
shall seek public input regarding the usefulness of, and any
proposed modifications to, existing reporting requirements and
proposed additional reporting requirements. The department shall
evaluate the public input provided under this subsection and seek
to facilitate reporting to the maximum extent feasible within
existing resources and in a manner that is most likely to assist
public understanding of department functions.
(d) In addition to the information required under
Subsections (a) and (b), the department shall annually publish
information on the number of children who died during the preceding
year whom the department determined had been abused or neglected
but whose death was not the result of the abuse or neglect. The
department may publish the information described by this subsection
in the same report required by Subsection (a) or in another annual
report published by the department.
SECTION 2. The heading to Section 264.123, Family Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 264.123. REPORTS CONCERNING CHILDREN WHO ARE MISSING
OR VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING [CHILD].
SECTION 3. Section 264.123, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (f) and adding Subsections (g) and (h) to read
as follows:
(f) After a missing child returns to the child's substitute
care provider, the department shall interview the child to
determine the reasons why the child was missing, [and] where the
child stayed during the time the child was missing, and whether,
while missing, the child was a victim of conduct that constitutes an
offense under Section 20A.02(a)(7), Penal Code. The department
shall report to an appropriate law enforcement agency any
disclosure made by a child that indicates that the child was the
victim of a crime during the time the child was missing. The
department shall make a report under this subsection not later than
24 hours after the time the disclosure is made. The department is
not required to interview a missing child under this subsection if,
at the time the child returns, the department knows that the child
was abducted and another agency is investigating the abduction.
(g) The department shall collect information on each child
in the department's managing conservatorship who is missing from
the child's substitute care provider and on each child who, while in
the department's managing conservatorship, is a victim of conduct
that constitutes an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(7), Penal Code.
The collected information must include information on:
(1) whether the managing conservatorship of the
department is temporary or permanent;
(2) the type of substitute care in which the child is
placed; and
(3) the child's sex, age, race, and ethnicity and the
department region in which the child resides.
(h) The department shall prepare an annual report on the
information collected under Subsection (g) and make the report
available on the department's Internet website. The report may not
include any individually identifiable information regarding a
child who is the subject of information in the report.
SECTION 4. Sections 261.004 and 264.111, Family Code, are
repealed.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1217 was passed by the House on April
16, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, 2 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 1217 on May 26, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0,
2 present, not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1217 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 22, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays
0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor