By: Burkett, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Kolkhorst) H.B. No. 1549
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 2017;
May 9, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on Health &
Human Services; May 22, 2017, reported adversely, with favorable
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0;
May 22, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1549 By: Kolkhorst
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the provision of services by the Department of Family
and Protective Services, including child protective services and
prevention and early intervention services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 261.204(a), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) Not later than March 1 of each year, the [The]
department shall publish an [annual] aggregated report using
information compiled from each child fatality investigation for
which the department made a finding regarding abuse or neglect,
including cases in which the department determined the fatality was
not the result of abuse or neglect. The report must protect the
identity of individuals involved and contain the following
information:
(1) the age and sex of the child and the county in
which the fatality occurred;
(2) whether the state was the managing conservator of
the child or whether the child resided with the child's parent,
managing conservator, guardian, or other person entitled to the
possession of the child at the time of the fatality;
(3) the relationship to the child of the individual
alleged to have abused or neglected the child, if any;
(4) the number of any department abuse or neglect
investigations involving the child or the individual alleged to
have abused or neglected the child during the two years preceding
the date of the fatality and the results of the investigations;
(5) whether the department offered family-based
safety services or conservatorship services to the child or family;
(6) the types of abuse and neglect alleged in the
reported investigations, if any; and
(7) any trends identified in the investigations
contained in the report.
SECTION 2. Section 261.301, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (j) to read as follows:
(j) In geographic areas with demonstrated need, the
department shall designate employees to serve specifically as
investigators and responders for after-hours reports of child abuse
or neglect.
SECTION 3. Subchapter B, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 264.1261 to read as follows:
Sec. 264.1261. FOSTER CARE CAPACITY NEEDS PLAN. (a) In
this section, "community-based foster care" means the redesigned
foster care services system required by Chapter 598 (S.B. 218),
Acts of the 82nd Legislature, Regular Session, 2011.
(b) Appropriate department management personnel from a
child protective services region in which community-based foster
care has not been implemented, in collaboration with foster care
providers, faith-based entities, and child advocates in that
region, shall use data collected by the department on foster care
capacity needs and availability of each type of foster care and
kinship placement in the region to create a plan to address the
substitute care capacity needs in the region. The plan must
identify both short-term and long-term goals and strategies for
addressing those capacity needs.
(c) A foster care capacity needs plan developed under
Subsection (b) must be:
(1) submitted to and approved by the commissioner; and
(2) updated annually.
(d) The department shall publish each initial foster care
capacity needs plan and each annual update to a plan on the
department's Internet website.
SECTION 4. Sections 264.502(a) and (b), Family Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(a) The child fatality review team committee is composed of:
(1) a person appointed by and representing the state
registrar of vital statistics;
(2) a person appointed by and representing the
commissioner of the department;
(3) a person appointed by and representing the Title V
director of the Department of State Health Services; [and]
(4) a person appointed by and representing the speaker
of the house of representatives;
(5) a person appointed by and representing the
lieutenant governor;
(6) a person appointed by and representing the
governor; and
(7) individuals selected under Subsection (b).
(b) The members of the committee who serve under Subsections
(a)(1) through (6) [(3)] shall select the following additional
committee members:
(1) a criminal prosecutor involved in prosecuting
crimes against children;
(2) a sheriff;
(3) a justice of the peace;
(4) a medical examiner;
(5) a police chief;
(6) a pediatrician experienced in diagnosing and
treating child abuse and neglect;
(7) a child educator;
(8) a child mental health provider;
(9) a public health professional;
(10) a child protective services specialist;
(11) a sudden infant death syndrome family service
provider;
(12) a neonatologist;
(13) a child advocate;
(14) a chief juvenile probation officer;
(15) a child abuse prevention specialist;
(16) a representative of the Department of Public
Safety;
(17) a representative of the Texas Department of
Transportation;
(18) an emergency medical services provider; and
(19) a provider of services to, or an advocate for,
victims of family violence.
SECTION 5. Section 264.503, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (d) and (e) and adding Subsection (h) to read
as follows:
(d) The Department of State Health Services shall:
(1) recognize the creation and participation of review
teams;
(2) promote and coordinate training to assist the
review teams in carrying out their duties;
(3) assist the committee in developing model protocols
for:
(A) the reporting and investigating of child
fatalities for law enforcement agencies, child protective
services, justices of the peace and medical examiners, and other
professionals involved in the investigations of child deaths;
(B) the collection of data regarding child
deaths; and
(C) the operation of the review teams;
(4) develop and implement procedures necessary for the
operation of the committee; [and]
(5) develop and make available training for justices
of the peace and medical examiners regarding inquests in child
death cases; and
(6) promote education of the public regarding the
incidence and causes of child deaths, the public role in preventing
child deaths, and specific steps the public can undertake to
prevent child deaths.
(e) In addition to the duties under Subsection (d), the
Department of State Health Services shall:
(1) collect data under this subchapter and coordinate
the collection of data under this subchapter with other data
collection activities; [and]
(2) perform annual statistical studies of the
incidence and causes of child fatalities using the data collected
under this subchapter; and
(3) evaluate the available child fatality data and use
the data to create public health strategies for the prevention of
child fatalities.
(h) Each member of the committee must be a member of the
child fatality review team in the county where the committee member
resides unless the committee member is an appointed representative
of a state agency.
SECTION 6. Subchapter F, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
amended by adding Sections 264.5031 and 264.5032 to read as
follows:
Sec. 264.5031. COLLECTION OF NEAR FATALITY DATA. (a) In
this section, "near fatality" means a case where a physician has
certified that a child is in critical or serious condition, and a
caseworker determines that the child's condition was caused by the
abuse or neglect of the child.
(b) The department shall include near fatality child abuse
or neglect cases in the child fatality case database, for cases in
which child abuse or neglect is determined to have been the cause of
the near fatality. The department must also develop a data
collection strategy for near fatality child abuse or neglect cases.
Sec. 264.5032. REPORT ON CHILD FATALITY AND NEAR FATALITY
DATA. (a) The department shall produce an aggregated report
relating to child fatality and near fatality cases resulting from
child abuse or neglect containing the following information:
(1) any prior contact the department had with the
child's family and the manner in which the case was disposed,
including cases in which the department made the following
dispositions:
(A) priority none or administrative closure;
(B) call screened out;
(C) alternative or differential response
provided;
(D) unable to complete the investigation;
(E) unable to determine whether abuse or neglect
occurred;
(F) reason to believe abuse or neglect occurred;
or
(G) child removed and placed into substitute
care;
(2) for any case investigated by the department
involving the child or the child's family:
(A) the number of caseworkers assigned to the
case before the fatality or near fatality occurred; and
(B) the caseworker's caseload at the time the
case was opened and at the time the case was closed;
(3) for any case in which the department investigation
concluded that there was reason to believe that abuse or neglect
occurred, and the family was referred to family-based safety
services:
(A) the safety plan provided to the family;
(B) the services offered to the family; and
(C) the level of compliance with the safety plan
or completion of the services by the family;
(4) the number of contacts the department made with
children and families in family-based safety services cases; and
(5) the initial and attempted contacts the department
made with child abuse and neglect victims.
(b) In preparing the part of the report required by
Subsection (a)(1), the department shall include information
contained in department records retained in accordance with the
department's records retention schedule.
(c) The report produced under this section must protect the
identity of individuals involved in a case that is included in the
report.
(d) The department may combine the report required under
this section with the annual child fatality report required to be
produced under Section 261.204.
SECTION 7. Sections 264.505(a) and (c), Family Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(a) A multidisciplinary and multiagency child fatality
review team may be established for a county to review child deaths
in that county. A [review team for a] county [with a population of
less than 50,000] may join with an adjacent county or counties to
establish a combined review team.
(c) A review team must reflect the diversity of the county's
population and may include:
(1) a criminal prosecutor involved in prosecuting
crimes against children;
(2) a sheriff;
(3) a justice of the peace or medical examiner;
(4) a police chief;
(5) a pediatrician experienced in diagnosing and
treating child abuse and neglect;
(6) a child educator;
(7) a child mental health provider;
(8) a public health professional;
(9) a child protective services specialist;
(10) a sudden infant death syndrome family service
provider;
(11) a neonatologist;
(12) a child advocate;
(13) a chief juvenile probation officer; and
(14) a child abuse prevention specialist.
SECTION 8. Section 264.506(b), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) To achieve its purpose, a review team shall:
(1) adapt and implement, according to local needs and
resources, the model protocols developed by the department and the
committee;
(2) meet on a regular basis to review child fatality
cases and recommend methods to improve coordination of services and
investigations between agencies that are represented on the team;
(3) collect and maintain data as required by the
committee; [and]
(4) review and analyze the collected data to identify
any demographic trends in child fatality cases, including whether
there is a disproportionate number of child fatalities in a
particular population group or geographic area; and
(5) submit to the vital statistics unit data reports
on deaths reviewed as specified by the committee.
SECTION 9. Section 264.509, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (b-1) to read as follows:
(b-1) The Department of State Health Services shall provide
a review team with electronic access to the preliminary death
certificate for a deceased child.
SECTION 10. (a) Section 264.514, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (a-1) and amending Subsection (b) to read as
follows:
(a-1) The commissioners court of a county shall adopt
regulations relating to the timeliness for conducting an inquest
into the death of a child. The regulations adopted under this
subsection must be as stringent as the standards issued by the
National Association of Medical Examiners unless the commissioners
court determines that it would be cost prohibitive for the county to
comply with those standards.
(b) The medical examiner or justice of the peace shall
immediately notify an appropriate local law enforcement agency if
the medical examiner or justice of the peace determines that the
death is unexpected or the result of abuse or neglect, and that
agency shall investigate the child's death. The medical examiner or
justice of the peace shall notify the appropriate county child
fatality review team of the child's death not later than the 120th
day after the date the death is reported.
(b) A county must attempt to implement the timeliness
standards for inquests as described by Section 264.514(a-1), Family
Code, as added by this Act, as soon as possible after the effective
date of this Act.
SECTION 11. Section 264.903, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:
(a-1) The department shall expedite the evaluation of a
potential caregiver under this section to ensure that the child is
placed with a caregiver who has the ability to protect the child
from the alleged perpetrator of abuse or neglect against the child.
SECTION 12. Section 265.005(b), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) A strategic plan required under this section must:
(1) identify methods to leverage other sources of
funding or provide support for existing community-based prevention
efforts;
(2) include a needs assessment that identifies
programs to best target the needs of the highest risk populations
and geographic areas;
(3) identify the goals and priorities for the
department's overall prevention efforts;
(4) report the results of previous prevention efforts
using available information in the plan;
(5) identify additional methods of measuring program
effectiveness and results or outcomes;
(6) identify methods to collaborate with other state
agencies on prevention efforts; [and]
(7) identify specific strategies to implement the plan
and to develop measures for reporting on the overall progress
toward the plan's goals; and
(8) identify strategies to increase the number of
high-risk families and communities receiving prevention and early
intervention services each year, subject to the availability of
funds.
SECTION 13. Subchapter B, Chapter 40, Human Resources Code,
is amended by adding Section 40.038 to read as follows:
Sec. 40.038. SECONDARY TRAUMA SUPPORT FOR CASEWORKERS. (a)
In this section, "secondary trauma" means trauma incurred as a
consequence of a person's exposure to acute or chronic trauma.
(b) The department shall develop and make available a
program to provide ongoing support to caseworkers who experience
secondary trauma resulting from exposure to trauma in the course of
the caseworker's employment. The program must include critical
incident stress debriefing. The department may not require that a
caseworker participate in the program.
SECTION 14. Subchapter C, Chapter 40, Human Resources Code,
is amended by adding Section 40.0516 to read as follows:
Sec. 40.0516. COLLECTION OF DATA; ANNUAL REPORT. (a) The
department shall collect and compile the following data on the
state and county level:
(1) the following information for reports of abuse and
neglect in residential child-care facilities, as defined by Section
42.002:
(A) the number of reports of abuse and neglect
made to the department hotline;
(B) the types of abuse and neglect reported;
(C) the investigation priority level assigned to
each report;
(D) the investigation response times, sorted by
investigation priority;
(E) the disposition of each investigation;
(F) the number of reports of abuse and neglect to
which the department assigned a disposition of call screened out or
alternative or differential response provided; and
(G) the overall safety and risk finding for each
investigation;
(2) the number of families referred to family
preservation services, organized by the risk level assigned to each
family through structured decision-making;
(3) the number of children removed from the child's
home as the result of an investigation of a report of abuse or
neglect and the primary circumstances that contributed to the
removal;
(4) the number of children placed in substitute care,
organized by type of placement;
(5) the number of children placed out of the child's
home county or region;
(6) the number of children in the conservatorship of
the department at each service level;
(7) the number of children in the conservatorship of
the department who are pregnant or who are a parent;
(8) the number of children in the managing
conservatorship of the department who are the parent of a child who
is also in the managing conservatorship of the department;
(9) the recurrence of child abuse or neglect in a
household in which the department investigated a report of abuse or
neglect within six months and one year of the date the case was
closed separated by the following type of case:
(A) cases that were administratively closed
without further action;
(B) cases in which the child was removed and
placed in the managing conservatorship of the department; and
(C) cases in which the department provided family
preservation services;
(10) the recurrence of child abuse and neglect in a
household within five years of the date the case was closed for
cases described by Subdivisions (9)(B) and (C); and
(11) workforce turnover data for child protective
services employees, including the average tenure of caseworkers and
supervisors and the average salary of caseworkers and supervisors.
(b) Not later than February 1 of each year, the department
shall publish a report containing data collected under this
section. The report must include the statewide data and the data
reported by county.
SECTION 15. Subchapter C, Chapter 40, Human Resources Code,
is amended by adding Section 40.0529 to read as follows:
Sec. 40.0529. CASELOAD MANAGEMENT. (a) Subject to a
specific appropriation for that purpose, the department shall
develop and implement a caseload management system for child
protective services caseworkers and managers that:
(1) ensures equity in the distribution of workload,
based on the complexity of each case;
(2) calculates caseloads based on the number of
individual caseworkers who are available to handle cases;
(3) includes geographic case assignment in areas with
concentrated high risk populations, to ensure that an adequate
number of caseworkers and managers with expertise and specialized
training are available;
(4) includes a plan to deploy master investigators in
anticipation of emergency shortages of personnel; and
(5) anticipates vacancies in caseworker positions in
areas of the state with high caseworker turnover to ensure the
timely hiring of new caseworkers in those areas.
(b) In calculating the caseworker caseload under Subsection
(a)(2), the department shall consider at least the following:
(1) caseworkers who are on extended leave;
(2) caseworkers who worked hours beyond a normal work
week; and
(3) caseworkers who are on a reduced workload.
SECTION 16. Subchapter C, Chapter 40, Human Resources Code,
is amended by adding Section 40.078 to read as follows:
Sec. 40.078. PREVENTION TASK FORCE. (a) In this section,
"task force" means the Prevention Task Force.
(b) The commissioner shall establish the Prevention Task
Force to make recommendations to the department for changes to law,
policy, and practices regarding:
(1) the prevention of child abuse and neglect;
(2) the implementation of the changes in law made by
H.B. 1549, Acts of the 85th Legislature, Regular Session, 2017; and
(3) the implementation of the department's five-year
strategic plan for prevention and early intervention services
developed under Section 265.005, Family Code.
(c) The commissioner shall determine the number of members
on the task force and shall appoint members to the task force
accordingly. Members of the task force may include:
(1) a chair of a child fatality review team committee;
(2) a pediatrician;
(3) a judge;
(4) representatives of relevant state agencies;
(5) prosecutors who specialize in child abuse and
neglect;
(6) medical examiners;
(7) representatives of service providers to the
department; and
(8) policy experts in child abuse and neglect
prevention, community advocacy, or related fields.
(d) The commissioner shall select the chair of the task
force.
(e) The task force shall meet at times and locations as
determined by the chair of the task force.
(f) A vacancy on the task force shall be filled in the same
manner as the original appointment.
(g) A member of the task force is not entitled to
compensation or reimbursement of expenses incurred in performing
duties related to the task force.
(h) The department shall provide reasonably necessary
administrative and technical support to the task force.
(i) The department may accept on behalf of the task force a
gift, grant, or donation from any source to carry out the purposes
of the task force.
(j) Chapter 2110, Government Code, does not apply to the
task force.
(k) Not later than August 31, 2018, the task force shall
submit a report to the commissioner. The report must include:
(1) a description of the activities of the task force;
and
(2) the findings and recommendations of the task
force.
(l) The task force is abolished and this section expires
August 31, 2018.
SECTION 17. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, the commissioner of the Department of Family and
Protective Services shall appoint members to the Prevention Task
Force created by this Act under Section 40.078, Human Resources
Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 18. This Act takes effect only if a specific
appropriation for the implementation of the Act is provided in a
general appropriations act of the 85th Legislature. If the
legislature does not appropriate money specifically for the purpose
of implementing this Act, this Act has no effect.
SECTION 19. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
* * * * *