AN ACT
1-1 relating to the expansion and funding of the Texas Integrated
1-2 Funding Initiative of the Health and Human Services Commission.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Chapter 531, Government Code, is amended by
1-5 adding Subchapter G to read as follows:
1-6 SUBCHAPTER G. DEVELOPING LOCAL MENTAL HEALTH
1-7 CARE SYSTEMS FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN
1-8 Sec. 531.251. PILOT PROJECT CONSORTIUM; EXPANSION PLAN.
1-9 (a) The commission shall form a consortium to develop criteria for
1-10 and implement the expansion of the Texas Integrated Funding
1-11 Initiative pilot project and to develop local mental health care
1-12 systems in communities for minors who are receiving residential
1-13 mental health services or who are at risk of residential placement
1-14 to receive mental health services. The consortium must include
1-15 representatives of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
1-16 Retardation, Department of Protective and Regulatory Services,
1-17 Texas Education Agency, Texas Youth Commission, Texas Juvenile
1-18 Probation Commission, and Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug
1-19 Abuse and an equal number of family advocates.
1-20 (b) The commission and the consortium shall:
1-21 (1) develop a model and guidelines for the delivery of
1-22 mental health services and support to a minor, initiated before the
1-23 person's 18th birthday, including best practices in the financing,
1-24 administration, governance, and delivery of those services;
2-1 (2) establish a plan to expand the Texas Integrated
2-2 Funding Initiative so that the initiative may operate in up to six
2-3 communities; and
2-4 (3) identify appropriate sources of state and federal
2-5 funding to finance mental health services under the initiative from
2-6 a central fund for expansion communities.
2-7 Sec. 531.252. PROPOSALS FOR EXPANSION COMMUNITIES. (a) The
2-8 commission by rule shall establish a request-for-proposal process
2-9 to select expansion communities to participate in the initiative.
2-10 (b) The commission and the consortium shall develop criteria
2-11 to evaluate proposals for selecting expansion communities to
2-12 participate in the expanded initiative. The criteria must:
2-13 (1) reflect the underlying principles of the Texas
2-14 Integrated Funding Initiative;
2-15 (2) emphasize services that are culturally competent,
2-16 family-centered, and seamless;
2-17 (3) identify populations to be served under the
2-18 proposals;
2-19 (4) establish for the expansion communities service
2-20 outcome goals related to minors who are receiving residential
2-21 mental health services or who are at risk of residential placement
2-22 to receive mental health services, including:
2-23 (A) decreasing incidents of abuse or neglect of
2-24 the minors;
2-25 (B) reducing recidivism rates of juvenile
2-26 offenders;
3-1 (C) increasing school attendance and progress of
3-2 the minors;
3-3 (D) reducing the rate of placement of the minors
3-4 in residential treatment;
3-5 (E) increasing the rate of reunification of the
3-6 minors with their families;
3-7 (F) improving the emotional, behavioral, and
3-8 social adjustment of the minors; and
3-9 (G) improving the stability of placements of the
3-10 minors;
3-11 (5) provide for locations of participating communities
3-12 in urban, suburban, and rural settings; and
3-13 (6) specify information that must be provided in a
3-14 proposal for a community, including:
3-15 (A) information on the costs of the activities
3-16 proposed; and
3-17 (B) the characteristics of minors in the
3-18 community who are in residential care for mental health services or
3-19 who are at risk of being placed in residential care to receive
3-20 mental health services.
3-21 (c) Populations to be served, as identified under Subsection
3-22 (b)(3), must include youth at risk of residential placement,
3-23 incarceration, or reincarceration because of severe emotional
3-24 disturbance, including:
3-25 (1) students in a special education program under
3-26 Subchapter A, Chapter 29, Education Code; and
4-1 (2) youth with a severe emotional disturbance and a
4-2 co-occurring:
4-3 (A) substance abuse disorder; or
4-4 (B) developmental disability.
4-5 (d) Outcome criteria established under Subsection (b)(4)
4-6 must be consistent with outcome measures used in evaluations of
4-7 individualized children's services projects in other states.
4-8 Sec. 531.253. SELECTION OF EXPANSION COMMUNITIES. The
4-9 commission and the consortium shall review proposals for expansion
4-10 communities and approve participation of not more than six
4-11 communities to participate in the initiative. The selected
4-12 communities must be those that best meet the criteria developed
4-13 under Section 531.252.
4-14 Sec. 531.254. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION. The
4-15 commission, the consortium, and the expansion communities shall
4-16 collaborate to develop and shall share technical assistance and
4-17 training resources to aid communities in developing local systems
4-18 for delivering mental health services to minors.
4-19 Sec. 531.255. EVALUATION. (a) The commission and the Texas
4-20 Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation jointly shall
4-21 monitor the progress of the expansion communities.
4-22 (b) The commission, the consortium, and the expansion
4-23 communities shall collaborate to develop a system to evaluate the
4-24 success of the expansion communities in achieving outcome goals for
4-25 the minors the communities serve, including outcome goals developed
4-26 under Section 531.252. An evaluation under the system must include
5-1 information on cost avoidance and net savings that result from
5-2 participation in the initiative.
5-3 (c) Each expansion community shall identify the baseline
5-4 information to compare with the information on outcomes in
5-5 evaluating the achievements of the community. A community is
5-6 responsible for collecting and reporting outcome information to the
5-7 commission in accordance with the requirements of the evaluation
5-8 system developed under Subsection (b).
5-9 (d) To the extent practicable, an expansion community shall
5-10 use instruments to measure outcomes that have known reliability and
5-11 validity and that allow comparisons with similar projects in other
5-12 states and with national evaluation efforts.
5-13 Sec. 531.256. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR YOUTH GRANTS.
5-14 (a) The commission shall expand the Texas Integrated Funding
5-15 Initiative pilot project so that, on or before September 1, 2001,
5-16 the initiative is able to award grants to community projects for
5-17 mental health services for youth.
5-18 (b) The commission by rule shall develop criteria for
5-19 awarding grants under this section that will encourage a community
5-20 to establish services and programs that suit the mental health
5-21 services needs of minors of the community.
5-22 (c) The grants may be paid from the fund developed for the
5-23 Texas Integrated Funding Initiative. The commission may establish
5-24 and identify money for related projects.
5-25 Sec. 531.257. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR GRANT PROJECTS. The
5-26 commission may provide technical assistance to a community that
6-1 receives a grant under Section 531.256.
6-2 Sec. 531.258. STATEWIDE EVALUATION SYSTEM. The commission
6-3 shall develop an evaluation system to measure outcomes of the Texas
6-4 Integrated Funding Initiative.
6-5 SECTION 2. (a) The Department of Protective and Regulatory
6-6 Services, Texas Education Agency, Texas Department of Mental Health
6-7 and Mental Retardation, Texas Youth Commission, Texas Commission on
6-8 Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission
6-9 each shall transfer to the Health and Human Services Commission
6-10 $30,000 in fiscal year 2000 and $70,000 in fiscal year 2001 to
6-11 finance the Texas Integrated Funding Initiative.
6-12 (b) The Health and Human Services Commission shall promote
6-13 the participation of new communities in and projects for the Texas
6-14 Integrated Funding Initiative to attract matching funds and local
6-15 participation.
6-16 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
6-17 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
6-18 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
6-19 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
6-20 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
6-21 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
6-22 passage, and it is so enacted.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1234 passed the Senate on
April 15, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 25, 1999, by the
following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1234 passed the House, with
amendment, on May 22, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 144,
Nays 0, two present not voting.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
_______________________________
Date
_______________________________
Governor