BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3963

By: Capriglione

Delivery of Government Efficiency

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Texas' Early Childhood Education (ECE) system has immense value as a foundation for supporting families and employers, students' educational attainment, and the state's long-term prosperity. Yet this system is fragmented across multiple state agencies, each managing their own data systems for programs serving children from birth to age eight. Examples of these systems include child protective services under the Department of Family and Protective Services, public prekindergarten under the Texas Education Agency, and childcare services under the Texas Workforce Commission. The bill author has informed the committee that the siloed data across agencies and systems such as these increases cost, hampers transparency, and obscures necessary information for strategic decision-making and that fostering insights through cross-agency collaboration could enable more informed decisions that promote positive outcomes for young children, their families, and the state economy. C.S.H.B. 3963 seeks to address these issues by strengthening data sharing across agencies to better inform state-level policy and program improvement related to early childhood.

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.

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.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3963 amends the Education Code to require the early childhood interagency work group to initiate the development of the early childhood integrated data system for the purpose of facilitating the sharing of data from early childhood programs across state agencies to inform policy related to those programs at the state level and to guide improvements to those programs to provide better outcomes for children and families. The bill requires such a system to be developed in a manner that does the following:

·       allows for the integration of existing state and federal data systems that are accessible to the cooperating entities and that contain data derived from early childhood services and programs;

·       allows for the identification of and reporting on gaps in services, opportunities to align services and programs, coordination needs across services and programs, and specific outcome measures using aggregated data that does not contain any identifying information, to the extent state or federal law expressly authorizes that use of the information; and

·       complies with state and federal laws relating to privacy, cybersecurity, and data collection, including rules establishing procedures to ensure that there is no unauthorized duplication or removal of confidential information.

The bill establishes that its provisions may not be construed to authorize the collection of data other than such data derived from early childhood services and programs. The bill defines "early childhood interagency work group" as the work group established to promote collaboration across state agencies serving families with young children and that consists of representatives from the following state agencies:

·       Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS);

·       Department of State Health Services (DSHS);

·       Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC);

·       Texas Education Agency (TEA); and

·       Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).

C.S.H.B. 3963 requires TEA to do the following:

·       oversee the completion of the system in a manner consistent with the requirements of the bill;

·       implement and maintain the system with assistance from the work group;

·       provide staff to operate the system;

·       using system data, conduct data matching using a protocol approved by the cooperating entities; and

·       oversee research related to the system in coordination with the cooperating entities.

The bill defines "cooperating entity" as the Children's Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, HHSC, TEA, and TWC. The bill requires TEA to undertake to ensure that the system is completed not later than January 1, 2027.

C.S.H.B. 3963 requires TEA and each cooperating entity to enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding the sharing of data for purposes of the system. The memorandum of understanding must specify the data derived from early childhood services and programs to be shared and the frequency and manner of that data sharing. The bill requires each cooperating entity to participate in the system and share data for purposes of the system as required by the memorandum.

C.S.H.B. 3963 requires TEA to submit to the governor and the legislature, not later than September 1 of each year, a report on the progress in developing, establishing, and operating the system. The bill requires the initial report to include the following components:

·       an interagency data governance plan that includes objectives relevant to the system and a framework for achieving those objectives, the roles and responsibilities of all state entities involved in establishing and maintaining the system, and documentation of relevant state and federal privacy, cybersecurity, and data collection laws, including rules;

·       a design plan that includes data integration, security, storage, retention, management, processing, and analytics and other products, as well as roles and responsibilities of relevant state entity personnel regarding data integration; and

·       information on the status of the hiring of staff to operate the system, funding applied for and secured, and the development of a website that includes a preliminary, publicly available consumer data dashboard.

The bill requires each subsequent report to include the following:

·       updates to the information required in the initial report;

·       an overview on business use cases the system can support; and

·       information on the development of analytic tools based on those business use cases.

C.S.H.B. 3963 authorizes the work group, the cooperating entities, and TEA to use any available state or federal money to develop the system. The bill requires TEA to actively pursue grants or other money available from the state and federal government to operate the system. The bill authorizes the work group, the cooperating entities, and TEA to accept gifts, grants, and donations from any source for the purposes of the bill's provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3963 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

While the introduced amended the Human Resources Code to establish provisions relating to the early childhood integrated data system, the substitute amends the Education Code to establish those provisions. Additionally, whereas the introduced included DFPS and the Texas Head Start Collaboration Office in the definition of "cooperating entity," the substitute omits these entities from that definition. The substitute defines "lead agency" as TEA and omits provisions from the introduced requiring the early childhood interagency workgroup to designate from among certain cooperating entities a lead agency and defining the term as that designated entity.

The substitute and the introduced differ in the following ways regarding provisions relating to the initial development of the early childhood integrated data system:

·       whereas the introduced required the workgroup to develop the system, the substitute requires the work group to initiate the development of the system;

·       whereas the introduced set out the purpose of the system as facilitating and strengthening the sharing of data from early childhood programs, the substitute only sets out the purpose as facilitating such data sharing;

·       whereas the introduced stated one of the goals of such data sharing to be guiding improvements for those programs that support the state's early childhood goals and priorities and provide better outcomes for children and families in Texas, the substitute changes the goal to guiding improvements to early childhood programs to provide better outcomes for children and families;

·       the substitute changes the requirement present in the introduced that the system be developed in a manner that allows for the integration of existing state and federal data systems that are accessible to the cooperating agencies and that contain data derived from early childhood services and programs in the following ways:

o   replaces reference to "cooperating agencies" with reference to "cooperating entities";

o   removes the specification that the services and programs serve families with children from birth through eight years of age; and

o   removes the specification that such data includes data related to outcomes under those services and programs;

·       the substitute omits the requirement present in the introduced for the system to be developed in a manner that allows for the identification of and reporting on gaps in underserved populations; and

·       replaces the prohibition on data other than that described by the bill's applicable provisions from being collected for purposes of the system, as in the introduced, with a provision establishing that nothing in the bill's provisions may be construed to authorize the collection of data other than that specified data.

The introduced required the lead agency to complete the development of the system in a manner consistent with the requirements of the bill, whereas the substitute requires TEA to oversee the completion of the system in such a manner. The substitute includes a provision not in the introduced that requires TEA, in coordination with the cooperating entities, to oversee research projects related to the system.

Whereas the introduced required the workgroup to submit to the legislature, not later than January 1 of each year, a report on the workgroup's, lead agency's, and cooperating entities' progress in developing, establishing, and operating the system, the substitute requires TEA to submit to the governor and the legislature, not later than September 1 of each year, a report on the progress in developing, establishing, and operating the system. Both the introduced and substitute establish the components of the initial report, but the versions differ as follows:

·       the substitute omits the provisions included in the introduced for those components to include an identification of the state entity the workgroup designated to act as the lead agency and a standardized process for updating the memorandum of understanding into which the cooperating entities entered;

·       the introduced included among the report's components a design plan that focuses on data transportation, whereas the substitute changes this component to a design plan that includes data integration; and

·       the introduced included as a component of the report information on the status of hiring project management full-time equivalents and grant funding applied for and grant funding secured, whereas the substitute changes this to information on the status of hiring staff to operate the system and funding applied for and secured.

The substitute includes an authorization not in the introduced for the work group, the cooperating entities, and TEA to accept gifts, grants, and donations from any source for the purposes of the bill's provisions. The substitute requires TEA to actively pursue grants or other money available from the state government, in addition to the federal government as in the introduced, to operate the system.

The substitute omits the following provisions present in the introduced:

·       provisions that required the workgroup, not later than January 1, 2026, to designate the lead agency for the system and to submit the initial report to the applicable entities; and

·       a provision that provided for the delayed implementation of any provision for which a state agency determined a federal waiver or authorization is necessary for implementation until the waiver or authorization was requested and granted.

The substitute includes a requirement not in the introduced for TEA to undertake to ensure that the early childhood integrated data system is completed not later than January 1, 2027.