H.B. No. 1217

AN ACT

relating to certain reporting requirements of the Department of Family and Protective Services regarding child protection, including reporting information for certain foster children who are missing or are victims of sex trafficking.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. 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 2. The heading to Section 264.123, Family Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 264.123. REPORTS CONCERNING CHILDREN WHO ARE MISSING OR VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING [CHILD].

SECTION 3. Section 264.123, Family Code, is amended by amending Subsection (f) and adding Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:

(f) After a missing child returns to the child's substitute care provider, the department shall interview the child to determine the reasons why the child was missing, [and] where the child stayed during the time the child was missing, and whether, while missing, the child was a victim of conduct that constitutes an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(7), Penal Code. The department shall report to an appropriate law enforcement agency any disclosure made by a child that indicates that the child was the victim of a crime during the time the child was missing. The department shall make a report under this subsection not later than 24 hours after the time the disclosure is made. The department is not required to interview a missing child under this subsection if, at the time the child returns, the department knows that the child was abducted and another agency is investigating the abduction.

(g) The department shall collect information on each child in the department's managing conservatorship who is missing from the child's substitute care provider and on each child who, while in the department's managing conservatorship, is a victim of conduct that constitutes an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(7), Penal Code. The collected information must include information on:

(1) whether the managing conservatorship of the department is temporary or permanent;

(2) the type of substitute care in which the child is placed; and

(3) the child's sex, age, race, and ethnicity and the department region in which the child resides.

(h) The department shall prepare an annual report on the information collected under Subsection (g) and make the report available on the department's Internet website. The report may not include any individually identifiable information regarding a child who is the subject of information in the report.

SECTION 4. Sections 261.004 and 264.111, Family Code, are repealed.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.

______________________________ ______________________________

President of the Senate Speaker of the House

I certify that H.B. No. 1217 was passed by the House on April 16, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, 2 present, not voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B. No. 1217 on May 26, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, 2 present, not voting.

______________________________ Chief Clerk of the House

I certify that H.B. No. 1217 was passed by the Senate, with amendments, on May 22, 2015, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.

______________________________ Secretary of the Senate APPROVED: __________________

Date

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Governor