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3 Document(s) [ Subject: Unaccompanied%20minors ]

Committee: House Human Services
Title: Interim Report
Subjects: Border issues | Child abuse prevention | Child Protective Services | Coronavirus | Data management | Family and Protective Services, Texas Department of | Family preservation | Federal funds | Healthy Texas Women | Long-term care | Managed care | Medicaid | Medicare | Senior citizens | Services for persons with disabilities | Unaccompanied minors | Undocumented immigrants |
Library Call Number: L1836.87 H88
Session: 87th R.S. (2021)
Online version: View report [39 pages  File size: 2,582 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Monitor the impact of children, including unaccompanied minors, crossing the Texas-Mexico border on the Department of Family and Protective Services child protective services programs. Consider ways to encourage consistent, transparent, and timely review of abuse and neglect of these children. Consider strategies to ensure better coordination and collaboration among local agencies, faith-based organizations, the private sector, non-profits, and law enforcement to reduce the incidence of abuse and neglect fatalities and human trafficking of migrating children. Identify any particularized services that these children will need and assess the costs of providing these services.
2. Review the ongoing development of federal laws, rules, and regulations associated with the distribution of the federal pandemic recovery funds, including reporting requirements, and make recommendations to the House Committee on Appropriations for use of the funds to respond to the Texas-Mexico border crisis.
3. Monitor the agencies and programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction and oversee the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 87th Legislature. Conduct active oversight of all associated rulemaking and other governmental actions taken to ensure the intended legislative outcome of all legislation, including the following:
  • Legislation implementing the Healthy Families, Healthy Texas initiative, including:
    • HB133, 87th R.S. relating to the provision of benefits under Medicaid and the Healthy Texas Women program; and
    • Relevant provisions of HB 2658, 87th R.S. relating to the administration and operation of the Medicaid managed care program, especially those provisions that relate to continuous eligibility for a child for Medicaid; and
  • HB 3041, 87th R.S. related to the implementation of the Family Preservation Services Pilot Program.
4. Complete study of assigned charges related to the Texas-Mexico border issued in June 2021.
5. Evaluate current prevention and early intervention programs and make recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these programs in reducing child abuse and neglect.
6. Monitor implementation of SB 1, 87th R.S., Rider 30 (Health and Human Services Commission) and make recommendations for reducing the interest list for waiver services for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and reducing associated staffing shortages.
7. Evaluate further action needed to improve the safety and quality of the foster care system, including preventing children in foster care from being without a placement and increasing recruitment of foster families. Identify methods to strengthen Child Protective Services processes and services, focusing on efforts for family preservation and eliminating fatalities within the foster care system. This evaluation should:
  • Study the causes for children without placement;
  • Assess the safety concerns for children without placement, including the use of out-of- state and temporary emergency placement for children without placement; injuries while in the care of Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) employees; and exposure to child sex trafficking; and
  • Study how and why children without placement frequently enter the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice systems and the steps DFPS is taking to identify and prevent these instances.
8. Assess the quality and effectiveness of the DFPS IMPACT system for security, transparency, and accuracy. Review DFPS processes relating to the integrity of digital case management. Evaluate whether DFPS data collection adequately responds to child wellbeing indicators.
9. Examine the long-term services and support system of care in Texas. Study workforce challenges for both institutional and community services. Assess opportunities to improve patient safety at senior living facilities. Consider mechanisms to promote a stable, sustainable, and quality-based long-term care system to address current and future needs of the state.
10. Monitor federal decisions that may impact the delivery and financial stability of the state's health programs, including: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ rescission of its prior approval of the State’s 1115 Waiver, the state and federal negotiations of the Medicaid directed payment programs (including hospital finance methods), federal changes to the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Program and the exclusion of certain costs from the uncompensated care program authorized through the 1115 Waiver.
Committee: House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues
Title: Interim Report
Subjects: Border issues | Child support | Coronavirus | Court congestion | Family violence | Federal funds | Juvenile detention facilities | Juvenile Justice Department, Texas | Juvenile justice system | Operation Lone Star (Border security) | Probation | Protective orders | Unaccompanied minors | Undocumented immigrants |
Library Call Number:
Session: 87th R.S. (2021)
Online version: View report [42 pages  File size: 2,822 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Monitor the impact of children, including unaccompanied minors, crossing the Texas-Mexico border on the juvenile justice system, including gang violence. Identify any particularized services that children, including unaccompanied minors, will need and assess the costs of providing these services.
2. Examine current caseloads and capacity issues for courts handling matters related to the Texas-Mexico border. Evaluate the preparedness of the court system to handle increases in caseloads that may result from the border crisis response and make recommendations to ensure the continued fair and efficient administration of justice in the state in addressing any increased caseloads. (Joint charge with Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence)
3. Review the ongoing development of federal laws, rules, and regulations associated with the distribution of the federal pandemic recovery funds, including reporting requirements, and make recommendations to the House Committee on Appropriations for use of the funds to respond to the Texas-Mexico border crisis.
4. Monitor the agencies and programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction and oversee the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 87th Legislature. Conduct active oversight of all associated rulemaking and other governmental actions taken to ensure the intended legislative outcome of all legislation, including the following:
  • HB 4544, 87th R.S., relating to providing children committed to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department with certain documents on discharge or release, authorizing a fee.
5. Complete study of assigned charges related to the Texas-Mexico border issued in June 2021.
6. Examine obstacles to the reporting of domestic violence and how these obstacles contribute to the difficulty in obtaining and enforcing a protective order. Examine new technologies that could facilitate domestic violence reporting without putting victims at risk of further violence and harm.
7. Explore ways to modernize the juvenile justice system for youth on probation and incarcerated youth. Review statewide resource allocation, including available staffing, and identify potential geographic limitations. Investigate the best practices of smaller specialized facilities for youth committed to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department while leveraging the Department's current facilities and staff. Analyze the current gaps in county-level services and funding and make recommendations to address those gaps.
8. Examine workforce issues at state and local juvenile correctional facilities and consider the state's incentives to recruit quality staff. Consider the geographic areas where specialty providers are concentrated and the viability of opening specialized facilities for the state's youth with the highest therapeutic need to relieve the state's current rural facilities struggling with staffing. Consider consistent investments the state can make in local probation to encourage their facilities to divert youth from the juvenile justice system.
9. Study how child support is calculated and administered in Texas and how the Texas method compares to other states' plans for calculating child support, including identifying modern trends across the country for calculating child support. Consider how alternative methods for calculating child support affect each parents' share of responsibility for child support, health care, childcare, and other matters in other jurisdictions compared to Texas.
Committee: House Public Health
Title: Interim Report
Subjects: Border crossings | Border issues | Border security | Dental Examiners, Texas State Board of | Dentists | Ebola | Food and Drug Administration, U.S. | Foster care | Immunizations | Medical records | Pharmaceutical industry | Pharmacies | Pregnancy | Prenatal care | Prescription drugs | Psychoactive drugs | Substance abuse | Unaccompanied minors | Undocumented immigrants | Workers' compensation | Workforce Commission, Texas |
Library Call Number: L1836.83 H349h
Session: 83rd R.S. (2013)
Online version: View report [82 pages]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Assess the prevalence of nonmedical prescription drug use in the state (including opioid analgesics, stimulants, tranquilizers, and sedatives). Identify adverse health impacts. Recommend strategies to curb emerging substance abuse trends among children, pregnant women, and adults, as well as to reduce health care costs and mortality.
2. Study and make recommendations for improvements to the licensing, regulation, and monitoring of compounding pharmacies, including a review of the joint cooperative efforts between the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Department of State Health Services, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Consider the impact of the passage of SB 1100, 83rd R.S., additional appropriations made by the 83rd Legislature to strengthen inspections, and any relevant federal legislation.
3. Identify strategies to support the efficient exchange of electronic health information with Texas Health and Human Services enterprise agencies. Examine legal and technical issues around the accessibility of information held in registries maintained by state agencies to authorized health care providers. Identify issues related to health information exchange and providers' liability, as well as concerns related to transitioning patient data in cases where a provider selects a new electronic health record vendor.
4. Examine the current practice for dispensation of biologic and follow-on biologic (biosimilar) pharmaceutical products in our state. Review any practices for interchangeability of drugs that might pertain to these particular medicines. Review and make recommendations regarding the substitution of biosimilar and biologic medicines.
5. Monitor transition of the state's immunization registry to a new system. Determine whether the registry can be better utilized to prevent and/or respond to communicable disease outbreaks, including pertussis. Identify potential factors contributing to the rise in the number of pertussis cases and strategies to prevent future outbreaks.
6. Conduct legislative oversight and monitoring of the agencies and programs under the committee’s jurisdiction and the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 83rd Legislature, including HB 15, 83rd R.S.. In conducting this oversight, the committee should: a. consider any reforms to state agencies to make them more responsive to Texas taxpayers and citizens; b. identify issues regarding the agency or its governance that may be appropriate to investigate, improve, remedy, or eliminate; c. determine whether an agency is operating in a transparent and efficient manner; and d. identify opportunities to streamline programs and services while maintaining the mission of the agency and its programs.

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