HBA-DMH C.S.H.B. 3487 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3487
By: Coleman
Human Services
3/30/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The 70th Legislature established the Child and Youth Services State
Coordinating Committee (committee) to assist state and local agencies with
the coordination of local service delivery for children and youth with
problems that could be addressed only with the participation of more than
one agency.  State agencies that are represented on the committee are
required to maintain a memorandum of understanding with the advice of
private sector service providers and children's advocates, to provide
services to Texas children and youth with multiple needs.  Currently, all
254 Texas counties have access to community resource coordinating groups
(CRCGs) for children and youth.  Because of the success of the CRCG youth
model, groups across the state would like to apply the concept to various
adult populations with interagency needs. In 1999, the performance report
of the comptroller of public accounts recommended the expansion of the CRCG
process to pilot sites for adults.  C.S.H.B. 3487 expands the memorandum of
understanding to include adults needing multiagency services. 

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. 

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3487 amends the Government Code to require each health and human
services agency, the Texas Council on Offenders with Mental Impairments,
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Texas Department of Housing
and Community Affairs, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Workforce
Commission, and the Texas Youth Commission to adopt a joint memorandum of
understanding to promote a system of local-level interagency staffing
groups to coordinate services for persons needing multiagency services.
The bill specifies which  issues the memorandum must address.  The bill
requires the agencies to consult with and solicit input from advocacy and
consumer groups.  Each agency is required to develop and adopt revisions as
necessary to reflect major changes to the agencies.  The bill requires the
agencies to ensure that a state-level interagency staffing group provides a
biennial report to specified entities. 

The bill repeals law in the Family Code relating to a similar memorandum of
understanding for services for multiproblem children and youth and provides
that the memorandum remains in effect until this memorandum of
understanding is adopted and takes effect. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 3487 differs from the original bill regarding the contents of the
memorandum by providing that each local-level interagency staffing group
includes family members or caregivers of persons needing multiagency
services or other current or previous consumers of multiagency services
acting as general consumer advocates.