AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The transitional living services program was established to prepare youth aging out of foster care for independent living. Training in certain practical activities like grocery shopping and balancing checkbooks is one way to help ease this transition.
H.B. 2111 aims to help foster youth transition out of care by:
H.B. 2111 amends current law relating to the transitional living services program for certain youth in foster care.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 264.121, Family Code, by amending Subsections (a-1) and (f) and adding Subsection (g), as follows:
(a-1) Requires the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to require a foster care provider to provide or assist youth who are age 14 or older in obtaining experiential life-skills training to improve their transition to independent living. Requires experiential life-skills training to be tailored to a youth's skills and abilities and to include training in practical activities that include grocery shopping, meal preparation and cooking, performing basic household tasks, balancing a checkbook, and, when appropriate, using public transportation, rather than requiring experiential life-skills training to be tailored to a youth’s skills and abilities and authorizing the training to include training in practical activities that include grocery shopping, meal preparation and cooking, using public transportation, performing basic household tasks, and balancing a checkbook.
(f) Requires DFPS to require a person with whom DFPS contracts for transitional living services for foster youth to provide or assist youth in obtaining:
(1)-(3) Makes no change to these subdivisions;
(4) Makes a nonsubstantive change;
(5) services that will assist youth in developing skills in food preparation;
(6) nutrition education that promotes healthy food choices; and
(7) Makes a nonsubstantive change.
(g) Requires an entity with which DFPS contracts for transitional living services for foster youth to, when appropriate, partner with a community-based organization to assist the entity in providing the transitional living services.
SECTION 2. Makes application of the change in law made by this Act prospective.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2013.