By: Watson S.B. No. 1288
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the Department of Family and Protective Services
reporting certain information regarding youth in the managing
conservatorship of the department who are pregnant or who are
parents.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 264.017(b), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) The department, in collaboration with the Texas Health
and Human Services Commission where appropriate, 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 April [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;
(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;
(11) the following information regarding youth
[number of children] who are [were] pregnant or who are parents [a
parent] while in the managing conservatorship of the department,
extended care, or who have emancipated:
(A) the number of female youth in the managing
conservatorship of the department who experienced a pregnancy in
the prior year as determined by STAR Health encounter claims,
compared to the total number of female youth enrolled in STAR
Health, reported according to the following age groups:
(i) youth who are ten to fourteen years old;
(ii) youth who are fifteen, sixteen, or
seventeen years old; and
(iii) youth who are eighteen or nineteen
years old and who are in care, extended care, or who have
emancipated.
(B) the number of female youth in the managing
conservatorship of the department who gave birth to a child in the
prior year as determined by STAR Health encounter claims, compared
to the total number of female youth enrolled in STAR Health,
reported according to the following age groups:
(i) youth who are ten to fourteen years old;
(ii) youth who are fifteen, sixteen, or
seventeen years old; and
(iii) youth who are eighteen or nineteen
years old and who are in care, extended care, or who have
emancipated.
(C) the number of youth in the managing
conservatorship of the department who are younger than 22 years of
age and who are parents and the following disaggregated information
about parenting youth:
(i) gender;
(ii) age on August 31;
(iii) race and ethnicity;
(iv) the type of substitute care in which
the youth are placed on August 31st; and
(v) the average number of placements in
which parenting youth have been placed during the Fiscal Year; and
(vi) whether parenting youth are adopted,
reunited with the youth's family, or emancipated and the length of
time the youth was in care at the time of the exit;
(D) the number of children of a parent in the
managing conservatorship of the department who are placed in the
managing conservatorship of the department in a Fiscal Year and the
percentage of children placed with their parent;
(E) the number of unduplicated youth in the
managing conservatorship of the department who are pregnant at the
time the youth enters the conservatorship of the department; and
(F) the number of unduplicated youth in the
managing conservatorship of the department who become pregnant
while in the conservatorship of the department [and the number of
the children born to a parent in the managing conservatorship of the
department who are placed in the managing conservatorship of the
department];
(12) the number of children who are missing from the
children's substitute care provider while in the managing
conservatorship of the department; and
(13) the number of children who were victims of
trafficking under Chapter 20A, Penal Code, while in the managing
conservatorship of the department.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.