Sec. 264.153. COMMUNITY-BASED CARE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. (a) The department shall develop and maintain a plan for implementing community-based care. The plan must:

(1) describe the department's expectations, goals, and approach to implementing community-based care;

(2) include a timeline for implementing community-based care throughout this state, any limitations related to the implementation, and a progressive intervention plan and a contingency plan to provide continuity of the delivery of foster care services and services for relative and kinship caregivers if a contract with a single source continuum contractor ends prematurely;

(3) delineate and define the case management roles and responsibilities of the department and the department's contractors and the duties, employees, and related funding that will be transferred to the contractor by the department;

(4) identify any training needs and include long-range and continuous plans for training and cross-training staff, including plans to train caseworkers using the standardized curriculum created by the human trafficking prevention task force under Section 402.035(d)(6), Government Code, as that section existed on August 31, 2017;

(5) include a plan for evaluating the costs and tasks associated with each contract procurement, including the initial and ongoing contract costs for the department and contractor;

(6) include the department's contract monitoring approach and a plan for evaluating the performance of each contractor and the community-based care system as a whole that includes an independent evaluation of each contractor's processes and fiscal and qualitative outcomes; and

(7) include a report on transition issues resulting from implementation of community-based care.

(b) The department shall annually:

(1) update the implementation plan developed under this section and post the updated plan on the department's Internet website; and

(2) post on the department's Internet website the progress the department has made toward its goals for implementing community-based care.

Added by Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 944 (S.B. 206), Sec. 57, eff. September 1, 2015.

Transferred, redesignated and amended from Family Code, Section 264.126 by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 319 (S.B. 11), Sec. 18(b), eff. September 1, 2017.