Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 359 continues the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services until 2009. The act requires the department to separate when feasible the service delivery and investigatory functions of its employees and to include in a contract for program-related services clearly defined goals and measurable outcomes as well as clearly defined sanctions and penalties for noncompliance. The act also requires the department to implement a uniform statewide process and a centralized tracking system for receiving and resolving complaints against the department.

            Senate Bill 359 authorizes the department to prioritize investigations, including those at mental health and mental retardation facilities. It requires the department and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) to establish procedures to resolve disagreements over findings of department investigations in MHMR facilities and to jointly use a single system to track investigations. The act requires the Board of Protective and Regulatory Services to adopt rules to further the policy of family preservation and to establish a flexible response system in which the department would investigate serious cases of child abuse or neglect and provide assessment and family preservation services in less serious cases. The act also requires the department to delete certain records relating to an investigation in which a person has been cleared of charges of child abuse or neglect. The act establishes pilot programs in which the department is required to enter into agreements in which local law enforcement agencies conduct investigations of reports of abuse. It requires an interview with a child alleged to be a victim of abuse to be audiotaped or videotaped unless good cause exists for not taping the interview.

            Senate Bill 359 directs the department to assure the availability of community education programs designed to improve public participation in preventing, identifying, and treating cases of child abuse or neglect and to establish multidisciplinary teams to provide services relating to a report of child abuse or neglect.

            Senate Bill 359 requires an applicant for employment with the department or with a licensed child-care facility or registered family home in a position that involves or could involve direct interactions with children to execute an affidavit that states that the applicant has not been convicted of certain offenses or that lists incidents in which the applicant was involved. The department is required to prescribe minimum training standards for an employee of a regulated child-care facility.

            Senate Bill 359 requires an applicant for a license to operate or expand the capacity of a 24-hour care foster group or foster family home in a county with a population of less than 300,000 to conduct a public hearing on the application and requires the department to consider certain elements before issuing the license, including the impact of the proposed services on the local school district. It also requires the department to consider similar community factors when contracting for substitute care services.

            In addition, the act establishes an offense for operating a family home without required registration and authorizes the department to deny or revoke a day-care license or registration based on a background and criminal history check. The act requires the department to search the central registry of reported cases of child abuse or neglect before issuing or renewing a license registration or certification to operate a child-care center. The department is authorized to assess an administrative penalty, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings is required to conduct contested case hearings for the department.

            Senate Bill 359 provides that an inquest to determine whether the death of a child younger than six years of age is unexpected or the result of abuse or neglect is not required if the child's death is expected and is due to a congenital or neoplastic disease. The act also establishes a caseload standards advisory committee in the department and in the Texas Department of Human Services to review caseload standards and recommend to the commissioner of health and human services minimum and maximum caseloads for each category of caseworker. The commissioner is authorized to establish caseload standards for the agencies.

            Senate Bill 359 streamlines the permanency review process for children under temporary conservatorship of the department and requires a court to render a final order or dismiss a suit within one year of granting the department temporary conservatorship of a child. The act authorizes a court to render a final order that appoints the department as managing conservator without terminating parental rights and requires a court to hold regular placement review hearings regarding a child in the conservatorship of the department. The act also clarifies the responsibility of a county, district, or criminal district attorney and the attorney general to represent the department in family cases. The act requires the department to place a child with the child's noncustodial parent, or with a relative if placement with the noncustodial parent is inappropriate, unless such placement is not in the best interest of the child. The department is required to begin locating adoptive parents as soon as a permanency plan is developed that includes termination of the parent-child relationship. The act allows for termination of a parent-child relationship if the parent fails to comply with a court order that establishes terms for the child's return to the parent.

            The act is effective September 1, 1997, except for sections relating to the placement of children who are under Department of Protective and Regulatory Services conservatorship, which are effective January 1, 1998.