BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.H.B. 3658 |
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By: King, Susan |
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Human Services |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Parents who work, attend school, participate in job training, and demonstrate financial need are eligible to receive subsidized child-care services through local workforce development boards administered by the Texas Workforce Commission. Interested parties believe that the state is missing a key opportunity to provide beneficial parenting education information to these parents. C.S.H.B. 3658 seeks to address this issue.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 3658 amends the Labor Code to require the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to develop and implement a pilot program to offer parent orientation and other parent education programs to parents receiving subsidized child-care services through a local workforce development board. The bill requires the TWC to select one local workforce development board located in a rural area and one local workforce development board located in an urban area to participate in the pilot program. The bill requires a participating local workforce development board, not later than December 1, 2016, to competitively procure a curriculum for a parent orientation program to be offered by the board to parents initially receiving or waiting to receive subsidized child-care services and curricula for additional parent education programs for parents receiving subsidized child-care services to supplement parent orientation. The bill requires a local workforce development board, to the extent practicable, to procure commercially available parent education program curricula. The bill requires a board participating in the pilot program to ensure that the curriculum for each program includes information for parents relating to early brain development, child growth and development, the importance of continuity of child care, and strategies for employing positive child guidance, selecting a quality child-care program, and supporting a child's educational success.
C.S.H.B. 3658 requires a participating local workforce development board to offer parent orientation to a parent who is eligible to receive subsidized child-care services through the board but prohibits a board from requiring a parent to participate. The bill requires a participating board to ensure that a parent who participates in the parent orientation receives priority for child-care services within the parent's priority group, as established by the TWC, over those parents within the priority group who do not participate in the orientation. The bill requires each participating board to establish a deadline by which a parent who applies for subsidized child-care services must complete the parent orientation in order to receive the benefit of participation.
C.S.H.B. 3658 requires a
participating local workforce development board to use the parent orientation
program curriculum procured by that board under the bill's provisions as the
content of parent orientation and to offer parent orientation at least three
times a month. The bill requires a participating local workforce development
board to select an instructor for the parent orientation through a
competitive procurement process in a manner consistent with certain statutory
contracting guidelines or to select a contractor who is already providing
workforce training or services to act as the instructor for parent
orientation. The bill requires a parent orientation session to include both
group discussion and video programming and to be at least
C.S.H.B. 3658 requires a participating local workforce development board, in addition to offering parent orientation, to offer parent education programs using the parent education program curricula procured by that board to a parent receiving subsidized child-care services through the board. The bill prohibits a board from requiring a parent to participate in a parent education program. The bill authorizes a participating board to offer incentives to encourage participation in the parent education programs and requires that the programs be offered in the languages, locations, and manner described by the bill's provisions for a parent orientation.
C.S.H.B. 3658 authorizes a parent receiving subsidized child-care services through a participating local workforce development board who becomes ineligible for subsidized child-care services because of a child's excessive absences to retain eligibility for child-care services if the parent enrolls in a parent education program offered by a local workforce development board not later than the 30th day after the date the board sends notice of ineligibility to the parent and successfully completes the parent education program within the time designated by board policy. The bill specifies that a parent may retain eligibility for child-care services by completing a parent education program after only the first time the parent becomes ineligible for the services. The bill requires a participating local workforce development board to adopt policies to administer these provisions, including a policy that specifies the manner in which a parent proves successful completion of a parent education program and that ensures that a parent who became ineligible for subsidized child-care services will continue to receive child-care services while the parent is completing the parent education program.
C.S.H.B. 3658 requires the TWC to develop a process for evaluating the effectiveness of the parent orientation and education programs and determine performance measures for the evaluation process not later than January 1, 2018. The bill requires the evaluation process to provide for the collection of feedback from parents who participated in the programs and to determine whether the programs should be continued, modified, or expanded for statewide implementation. The bill requires the TWC, not later than January 15, 2019, to perform the evaluation and to issue a report to the legislature regarding the TWC's findings and recommendations regarding the programs. The bill's provisions expire January 15, 2019.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 3658 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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