HBA-SEP H.B. 1307 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1307
By: Villarreal, Mike
Economic Development
7/19/2001
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The 76th Legislature funded the creation of a statewide network of child
care resource and referral agencies through the General Appropriations Act.
The bill that would have created the resource and referral network in
statute, however, did not pass.  Since the 76th legislative session, the
Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has awarded funds to the Texas Association
of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to provide child care data to
policy makers, education about early child care and education options to
parents, and assistance to employers who want to provide child care
benefits to their employees. The Legislative Budget Board has recommended
continuing funding to TWC for this purpose during the 2002-2003 biennium.
House Bill 1307 establishes a statutory requirement that TWC contract for
the provision of a child-care resource and referral network. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Workforce Commission in
SECTION 1 (Section 310.009, Labor Code) of this bill. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1307 amends the Labor Code to require the Texas Workforce
Commission (TWC) to contract with a child-care resource and referral
network (network) to provide child-care resource and referral services
through funds allocated to TWC as the agency designated to administer the
grant under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990.  The
bill requires TWC, not later than January 1, 2002, to use a system of
competitive procurement to award a contract to a network that has proven
experience in resource and referral services.  To the extent funds from the
block grant program are available for that purpose, TWC is required to
award the contract in a manner that will allow for the provision of
services statewide.   

The network is required to conduct a needs assessment to determine the
supply of and demand for childcare services in this state and to identify
discrepancies between that supply and demand.  Based on the needs
assessment, the network is required to make recommendations to TWC
regarding collaborative solutions to the discrepancies.  The bill specifies
certain entities that must collaborate and  recommend solutions.  The
network, through its members, is required to provide and continually update
certain resource information regarding child-care and early education
services in this state and assistance in becoming a child-care provider.
The bill requires the network to provide referral services to a person who
is seeking child-care and early childhood education services and an
employer seeking child-care assistance for the employer or an employee.
The network is further required to provide referrals to available support
services and information for consumers of child-care and early childhood
education services.   

The bill requires the network, through its members, to inform parents,
child-care consumers, child-care providers, and employers located in the
member's service area of the resource and referral services available from
the network and the methods by which a person may contact the member to
access resource and referral services.  The bill authorizes the member to
provide the information through the media and specified alternative means.
The network is required, through its members, to collect and continuously
update statewide data regarding the supply of and demand for child-care and
early childhood education services in this state, report the data to TWC
each calendar quarter, and make the information available statewide.  The
data must include a comprehensive compilation of all available child-care
and early childhood education services in this state and information
concerning unmet needs of consumers with respect to those services.  The
bill requires TWC and the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services
to provide assistance to the network and members of the network in
collecting, aggregating, and updating the data.   

The bill authorizes TWC to adopt rules necessary to implement the
child-care resource and referral network.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.