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
	__________________
	Governor