HBA-GUM, LCA, RBT H.B. 3271 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3271 By: Goodman Juvenile Justice & Family Issues 7/7/1999 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Office of Court Administration administers a system of 36 court masters (masters) through a contract with the Office of the Attorney General. These masters hear child support cases in about 40 areas of the state. Prior to the 76th Texas Legislature, however, most of these cases were not monitored after the hearing to prevent further child support delinquencies. H.B. 3271 requires the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services to work with other agencies to prevent such delinquencies by helping to locate parents and relatives of children throughout the state. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 231, Family Code, by adding Section 231.011, as follows: Sec. 231.011. COOPERATION WITH DEPARTMENT OF PROTECTIVE AND REGULATORY SERVICES. Defines "department" as the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS). Requires the Title IV-D agency to provide to DPRS access to all of the Title IV-D agency's available child support locating resources, allow DPRS to use the Title IV-D agency's child support enforcement system to track child support payments and to have access to the agency's management reports that show payments made, make reports on Title IV-E, Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Section 670 et seq.), foster care collections available to DPRS in a timely manner, and work with DPRS to obtain child support payment for protective services cases in which DPRS is responsible for providing care for children under temporary and final orders. SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter D, Chapter 231, Family Code, by adding Section 231.310, as follows: Sec. 231.310. INTERAGENCY WORK GROUP. (a) Requires the Title IV-D agency to establish a work group to facilitate the sharing of data and resources to locate parents and relatives of children served by the Title IV-D agency and other health and human services agencies. (b) Requires the work group to consist of representatives from the Title IV-D agency, DPRS, the Texas Department of Human Services, the Texas Department of Health, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rehabilitation Commission, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. (c) Requires the commissioner of human services or the commissioner's designee to serve as the work group's presiding officer. (d) Requires the work group to evaluate the procedures used by each agency in the work group to locate parents and relatives of children served by the agencies and develop a mechanism to ensure that each agency in the work group, or any private contractor preforming location functions for an agency, is able to access information in the database of each other agency without paying a fee. (e) Requires the work group to evaluate opportunities for using outside contracting and coordinating efforts with other community resources. (f) Requires DPRS and the Title IV-D agency to use outside contractors and community resources to locate parents in child protection and child support cases. SECTION 3. Amends Subchapter C, Chapter 264, Family Code, by adding Section 264.208, as follows: Sec. 264.208. LOCATION OF PARENTS. Requires DPRS to create a division staffed by personnel trained in locating parents and relatives of children throughout the state. Requires DPRS to use outside contractors and volunteer resources to the extent feasible to preform its responsibilities under this section. SECTION 4. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 5. Emergency clause.