Sec. 265.002. PREVENTION AND EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICES DIVISION. (a) The department shall operate a division to provide services for children in at-risk situations and for the families of those children and to achieve the consolidation of prevention and early intervention services within the jurisdiction of a single agency in order to avoid fragmentation and duplication of services and to increase the accountability for the delivery and administration of these services. The division shall be called the prevention and early intervention services division and shall have the following duties:

(1) to plan, develop, and administer a comprehensive and unified delivery system of prevention and early intervention services to children and their families in at-risk situations;

(2) to improve the responsiveness of services for at-risk children and their families by facilitating greater coordination and flexibility in the use of funds by state and local service providers;

(3) to provide greater accountability for prevention and early intervention services in order to demonstrate the impact or public benefit of a program by adopting outcome measures; and

(4) to assist local communities in the coordination and development of prevention and early intervention services in order to maximize federal, state, and local resources.

(b) The department's prevention and early intervention services division must be organizationally separate from the department's divisions performing child protective services and adult protective services functions.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 489, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.

Amended by:

Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 837 (S.B. 200), Sec. 1.13, eff. September 1, 2015.