| TO: | Honorable Richard Pena Raymond, Chair, House Committee on Human Services |
| FROM: | John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB3234 by Hernandez Luna (Relating to the preparation of case records of children discharged from foster care.), As Introduced |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds |
|---|---|
| 2012 | ($2,919,451) |
| 2013 | ($2,607,809) |
| 2014 | ($2,614,345) |
| 2015 | ($2,620,990) |
| 2016 | ($2,627,858) |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1 |
Probable Savings/(Cost) from GR Match For Medicaid 758 |
Probable Savings/(Cost) from Federal Funds 555 |
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | ($2,888,898) | ($30,553) | ($401,503) | 63.0 |
| 2013 | ($2,580,518) | ($27,291) | ($358,644) | 63.0 |
| 2014 | ($2,586,985) | ($27,360) | ($359,543) | 63.0 |
| 2015 | ($2,593,561) | ($27,429) | ($360,457) | 63.0 |
| 2016 | ($2,600,357) | ($27,501) | ($361,401) | 63.0 |
The bill would require the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), not later than 30 days before a child is discharged from foster care, to assemble and prepare the child's case record for release. DFPS is also required to redact any information from the case record that is confidential and may not be provided to the child under statute or department rule.
The bill would take effective September 1, 2011.
DFPS indicated that the average number of children leaving foster care for fiscal years 2009-2010 was 14,340, and that the average number of adoption consummations for the two periods was 2,102. In order to determine the number of case records that will require preparation, redaction, and delivery to the child, DFPS subtracted case records for the children being adopted because those case records are already redacted and provided to adoptive children, for a total 12,238 new case records needing to be redacted.
The average child protective services (CPS) case record that is redacted is estimated by DFPS to contain 1,126 pages for a total of 13,779,988 (12,238 X 1,126) new pages to be redacted per fiscal year. The agency indicated that an average of 125 pages can be read and redacted per hour, which means that 110,240 (13,779,988 divided by 125) new hours of work will be required. Based on DFPS time data showing that a redactor has 2,080 hours of available work time in a fiscal year, 53 (110,240 divided by 2080) additional redactor FTEs, 5 administrative assistant FTEs to manage the new caseload, and 5 administrative support FTEs are estimated to be needed for the provisions of the bill. The total FTE cost would be $2,949,845 in fiscal year 2012, $2,614,244 in fiscal year 2013, $2,621,678 in fiscal year 2014, $2,629,238 in fiscal year 2015, and $2,637,050 in fiscal year 2016. These costs include salaries, benefits, and other operating costs.
DFPS also indicated that each new redactor and supervisor will require redactor software at a cost of $300 each for a total cost of $18,900 for the first fiscal year. It was also assumed that each case record would contain audio and visual recordings, and that the cost to redact the audio and visual recordings would be $305,950 per fiscal year. The cost associated with placing the redacted case records on CD ROMS and mailing them out is assumed to be $46,260 per fiscal year.
The total cost would be $3,320,955 for fiscal year 2012, $2,966,454 for fiscal year 2013, $2,973,888 for fiscal year 2014, $2,981,448 for fiscal year 2015, and $2,989,260 for fiscal year 2016.
| Source Agencies: | 530 Family and Protective Services, Department of
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, CL, MB, SJ, VJC, NM
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