By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 1559
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to an interagency plan to promote competitive and
integrated employment for persons with disabilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 121, Human Resources Code, is amended by
adding Section 121.012 to read as follows:
Sec. 121.012. INTERAGENCY PLAN FOR COMPETITIVE AND
INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES. (a) The
comptroller, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Workforce
Commission, and the Health and Human Services Commission, in
consultation with the Texas Council on Purchasing from People with
Disabilities, shall work together to develop and implement an
interagency plan designed to transition persons with disabilities
out of environments in which persons with disabilities are
segregated and receive wages that are less than minimum wage and
into environments in which persons with disabilities receive
competitive wages in integrated employment settings.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the plan established
under this section must:
(1) establish a timeline as follows:
(A) not later than September 1, 2016:
(i) the Texas Education Agency shall adopt
a plan to prohibit the future use of state funds for services
provided by a local education agency in a environments in which
persons with disabilities are segregated and receive wages that are
less than minimum wage; and
(ii) the Comptroller shall adopt a plan to
use revenue from the set-aside purchasing program administered by
the Texas Council on Purchasing from People with Disabilities to
convert environments in which persons with disabilities are
segregated and receive wages that are less than minimum wage to
individualized and community-based employment opportunities
offering at least minimum wage;
(B) not later than September 1, 2017:
(i) each state agency shall ensure that all
agency employees, including contract employees under set-aside
contracts for persons with disabilities, receive minimum wage; and
(ii) the comptroller shall develop and
implement policies that identify and remove barriers for state
agencies to hire and retain persons with disabilities in integrated
work environments at competitive wages; and
(C) not later than September 1, 2022, the Health
and Human Services Commission shall adopt a plan to prohibit the use
of state funds for programs offered in environments in which
persons with disabilities are segregated and receive wages that are
less than minimum wages;
(2) require the Department of Assistive and
Rehabilitative Services to conduct outreach to persons with
disabilities in sheltered workshops to determine the services,
reasonable accommodations, or assistive technology needed to
increase the marketable job skills, productivity, and work options
for persons with disabilities;
(3) require the Texas Education Agency to implement a
plan that promotes community-based work skills, supports, and
employment options to students with disabilities who are at least
14 years of age;
(4) establish financial assistance and incentives for
employers that convert settings in which persons with disabilities
are segregated and receive wages that are less than minimum wage
into supported or integrated employment opportunities offering
competitive wages; and
(5) require state agencies participating in the
implementation of the plan to collect data in a manner that provides
information that is useful in determining how to sustain, expand,
and improve employment opportunities supported by the plan.
SECTION 2. Not later than January 1, 2016, the agencies
described by Section 121.012, Human Resources Code, as added by
this Act, shall develop the interagency plan required by that
section.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote
of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided
by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does
not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes
effect September 1, 2015.