HBA-BSM S.B. 833 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 833
By: Moncrief
Human Services
4/20/2001
Engrossed



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current Texas law, the minimum training standards for an employee or
director of a child-care facility must include annual training classes.
Also, there does not currently exist an inspection checklist for the
Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS) and other state
agencies which inspect child-care facilities to follow, which may lead to
an inefficient duplication of checks by various state agencies.  In
addition, the school transportation provisions do not specifically address
having a school bus pickup and drop off a child at a child-care facility
rather than at home.  Senate Bill 833 sets forth specific areas to be
included in the annual child care facility employee and director training,
requires the development of a checklist for inspection of child care
facilities, and authorizes school districts to pick up and drop off a child
at day care. 

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

Senate Bill 833 amends the Human Resources Code to provide that the annual
training given to employees and directors of a day care center or group day
care home must include a total of six hours of training in child growth and
development, guidance and discipline, age-appropriate curriculum, and
teacher-child interaction.  

 The bill requires the interagency task force formed by the Department of
Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS), the Texas Department of Health,
the Texas Department of Human Services, and the Texas Workforce Commission
to establish an inspection checklist and requires each state agency that
inspects a day care center, group day care home or family home to use the
inspection checklist in performing an inspection.  The bill also requires a
state agency to make a copy of the completed inspection checklist available
to such a facility on request to assist the facility in maintaining
records.  The bill also requires PRS to make information regarding
inspections available to such facilities. 

S.B. 833 amends the Education Code to authorize a county or school district
board to allow a parent to designate a child-care facility instead of the
child's residence as the regular location for purposes of obtaining
transportation to and from the child's school.  The bill prohibits the
commissioner of education from reducing the transportation allotment to
which a district or county is entitled because the district or county
provides transportation for an eligible student to and from a child care
facility instead of the student's residence if the transportation is
provided within the approved routes of the district or county for the
school the student attends.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.