Bill Text: TX SB534 | 2013-2014 | 83rd Legislature | Enrolled

---

Bill Title: Relating to providing stable placement for certain children in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Passed) 2013-06-14 - Effective on 9/1/13 [SB534 Detail]

Download: Texas-2013-SB534-Enrolled.html

---

S.B. No. 534

AN ACT
relating to providing stable placement for certain children in the
conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective
Services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 263, Family Code, is
amended to read as follows:
CHAPTER 263. REVIEW OF PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN UNDER CARE OF
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE [AND REGULATORY] SERVICES
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 263, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 263.009 to read as follows:
Sec. 263.009. PERMANENCY PLANNING MEETINGS. (a) The
department shall hold a permanency planning meeting for each child
for whom the department is appointed temporary managing
conservator:
(1) not later than the 45th day after the date the
department is named temporary managing conservator of the child;
and
(2) not later than five months after the date the
department is named temporary managing conservator of the child.
(b) At the five-month permanency planning meeting described
by Subsection (a)(2), the department shall:
(1) identify any barriers to achieving a timely
permanent placement for the child; and
(2) develop strategies and determine actions that will
increase the probability of achieving a timely permanent placement
for the child.
(c) The five-month permanency planning meeting described by
Subsection (a)(2) and any subsequent permanency planning meeting
may be conducted as a multidisciplinary permanency planning meeting
if the department determines that a multidisciplinary permanency
planning meeting will assist the department in placing the child
with an adult caregiver who will permanently assume legal
responsibility for the child and facilitate the child's exit from
the conservatorship of the department.
(d) Except as provided by Subsection (e), the department
shall make reasonable efforts to include the following persons in
each multidisciplinary permanency planning meeting and notify
those persons of the meeting:
(1) the child, if the child is at least seven years of
age;
(2) the child's attorney ad litem;
(3) the child's guardian ad litem;
(4) any court-appointed volunteer advocate for the
child;
(5) the child's substitute care provider and any
child-placing agency involved with the child;
(6) each of the child's parents and the parents'
attorney, unless:
(A) the parent cannot be located;
(B) the parent has executed an affidavit of
relinquishment of parental rights; or
(C) the parent's parental rights have been
terminated;
(7) each attorney ad litem appointed to represent the
interests of a parent in the suit; and
(8) any other person the department determines should
attend the permanency planning meeting.
(e) The department is not required to include a person
listed in Subsection (d) in a multidisciplinary permanency planning
meeting or to notify that person of a meeting if the department or
its authorized designee determines that the person's presence at
the meeting may have a detrimental effect on:
(1) the safety or well-being of another participant in
the meeting; or
(2) the success of the meeting because a parent or the
child has expressed an unwillingness to include that person in the
meeting.
(f) The department shall give the notice required by
Subsection (d) by e-mail if possible.
SECTION 3. Subsection (c), Section 263.502, Family Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(c) The placement review report must identify the
department's permanency goal for the child and must:
(1) evaluate whether the child's current placement is
appropriate for meeting the child's needs;
(2) evaluate whether efforts have been made to ensure
placement of the child in the least restrictive environment
consistent with the best interest and special needs of the child if
the child is placed in institutional care;
(3) contain a transition plan for a child who is at
least 16 years of age that identifies the services and specific
tasks that are needed to assist the child in making the transition
from substitute care to adult living and describes the services
that are being provided through the Transitional Living Services
Program operated by the department;
(4) evaluate whether the child's current educational
placement is appropriate for meeting the child's academic needs;
(5) identify other plans or services that are needed
to meet the child's special needs or circumstances;
(6) describe the efforts of the department or
authorized agency to place the child for adoption if parental
rights to the child have been terminated and the child is eligible
for adoption, including efforts to provide adoption promotion and
support services as defined by 42 U.S.C. Section 629a and other
efforts consistent with the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act
of 1997 (Pub. L. No. 105-89);
(7) for a child for whom the department has been named
managing conservator in a final order that does not include
termination of parental rights, describe the efforts of the
department to find a permanent placement for the child, including
efforts to:
(A) work with the caregiver with whom the child
is placed to determine whether that caregiver is willing to become a
permanent placement for the child;
(B) locate a relative or other suitable
individual to serve as permanent managing conservator of the child;
and
(C) evaluate any change in a parent's
circumstances to determine whether:
(i) the child can be returned to the parent;
or
(ii) parental rights should be terminated;
[and]
(8) with respect to a child committed to the Texas
Juvenile Justice Department [Youth Commission] or released under
supervision by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department [Youth
Commission]:
(A) evaluate whether the child's needs for
treatment and education are being met;
(B) describe, using information provided by the
Texas Juvenile Justice Department [Youth Commission], the child's
progress in any rehabilitation program administered by the Texas
Juvenile Justice Department [Youth Commission]; and
(C) recommend other plans or services to meet the
child's needs; and
(9) identify any placement changes that have occurred
since the most recent court hearing concerning the child and
describe any barriers to sustaining the child's placement,
including any reason for which a substitute care provider has
requested a placement change.
SECTION 4. Subchapter B, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 264.120 to read as follows:
Sec. 264.120. DISCHARGE NOTICE. (a) Except as provided by
Subsection (b), a substitute care provider with whom the department
contracts to provide substitute care services for a child shall
include in a discharge notice the following information:
(1) the reason for the child's discharge; and
(2) the provider's recommendation regarding a future
placement for the child that would increase the child's opportunity
to attain a stable placement.
(b) In an emergency situation in which the department is
required under the terms of the contract with the substitute care
provider to remove a child within 24 hours after receiving the
discharge notice, the provider must provide the information
required by Subsection (a) to the department not later than 48 hours
after the provider sends the discharge notice.
SECTION 5. Section 263.009, Family Code, as added by this
Act, applies only to a child placed in the temporary managing
conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services
on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 534 passed the Senate on
April 3, 2013, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 23, 2013, by the
following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 534 passed the House, with
amendment, on May 17, 2013, by the following vote: Yeas 134,
Nays 0, two present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor