Senate Bill 939 amends provisions of the Education Code and the Human Resources Code relating to reporting child abuse and neglect and to training regarding recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect at schools, institutions of higher education, and certain child‑care facilities, homes, and agencies. The bill includes open-enrollment charter schools and their employees among those subject to Texas Education Agency (TEA) policy governing reports of child abuse and neglect and requires the policy to require each school district and open-enrollment charter school employee to report child abuse and neglect in the manner prescribed by the Family Code. The bill expands the training requirement regarding prevention techniques for and recognition of sexual abuse and all other maltreatment of children to include existing school district and open-enrollment charter school employees on a schedule adopted by TEA and sets out requirements for posting the child abuse hotline telephone number in each public school and open-enrollment charter school. The bill requires an institution of higher education to adopt a policy governing the reporting of child abuse and neglect for the institution and its employees and establishes child abuse training requirements for certain employees who are professionals. The bill requires each employee of certain licensed child-care facilities, homes, and agencies to sign a statement verifying the employee's attendance at a child abuse training program and requires the statement to be maintained by the facility.

Senate Bill 939	Senate Author: West et al.
Effective: 9-1-13	House Sponsor: Parker et al.