Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
John McGeady, Assistant Director Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1231 by Bettencourt (Relating to providing certain public and private school administrators with information regarding certain child abuse and neglect investigations and allegations.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend Chapter 261 of the Family Code, to notify the director of an open-enrollment charter school and the chief executive officer (CEO) of a private school if DFPS receives a child abuse or neglect claim involving an employee of an open-enrollment charter school or private school.
The bill would also require DFPS to release information related to the child abuse and neglect claim to the school principal or director of public schools, the director of open-enrollment charter schools, and the CEO of private schools.
The bill would remove the jurisdiction of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) over DFPS to investigate child abuse and neglect claims and DFPS would be required to send a completed investigation report to a private school, unless the CEO is under investigation, if the investigation involves a private school employee.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2019.
It is assumed that the provisions of the bill could be absorbed using existing resources.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
530 Family and Protective Services, Department of, 701 Texas Education Agency