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Amend HB 1217 (senate committee printing) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION ____. Subchapter A, Chapter 264, Family Code, is amended by adding Section 264.017 to read as follows:
Sec. 264.017. REQUIRED REPORTING. (a) The department shall prepare and disseminate a report of statistics by county relating to key performance measures and data elements for child protection.
(b) The department shall provide the report required by Subsection (a) to the legislature and shall publish the report and make the report available electronically to the public not later than February 1 of each year. The report must include, with respect to the preceding year:
(1) information on the number and disposition of reports of child abuse and neglect received by the department;
(2) information on the number of clients for whom the department took protective action, including investigations, alternative responses, and court-ordered removals;
(3) information on the number of clients for whom the department provided services in each program administered by the child protective services division, including investigations, alternative responses, family-based safety services, conservatorship, post-adoption services, and transitional living services;
(4) the number of children in this state who died as a result of child abuse or neglect;
(5) the number of children described by Subdivision (4) for whom the department was the children's managing conservator at the time of death;
(6) information on the timeliness of the department's initial contact in an investigation or alternative response;
(7) information on the response time by the department in commencing services to families and children for whom an allegation of child abuse or neglect has been made;
(8) information regarding child protection staffing and caseloads by program area;
(9) information on the permanency goals in place and achieved for children in the managing conservatorship of the department, including information on the timeliness of achieving the goals, the stability of the children's placement in foster care, and the proximity of placements to the children's home counties; and
(10) the number of children who suffer from a severe emotional disturbance and for whom the department is appointed managing conservator, including statistics on appointments as joint managing conservator, due to an individual voluntarily relinquishing custody of a child solely to obtain mental health services for the child.
(c) Not later than September 1 of each year, the department shall seek public input regarding the usefulness of, and any proposed modifications to, existing reporting requirements and proposed additional reporting requirements. The department shall evaluate the public input provided under this subsection and seek to facilitate reporting to the maximum extent feasible within existing resources and in a manner that is most likely to assist public understanding of department functions.
(d) In addition to the information required under Subsections (a) and (b), the department shall annually publish information on the number of children who died during the preceding year whom the department determined had been abused or neglected but whose death was not the result of the abuse or neglect. The department may publish the information described by this subsection in the same report required by Subsection (a) or in another annual report published by the department.
SECTION ____. Sections 261.004 and 264.111, Family Code, are repealed.