Current through Reg. 49, No. 38; September 20, 2024
(a) The Department of Family and Protective
Services (DFPS) shall develop an Internet application that allows a
court-appointed volunteer advocate representing a child in DFPS' managing
conservatorship to:
(1) access the child's
case file, as further specified in subsection (b) of this section and
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entered into pursuant thereto; and
(2) add the volunteer advocate's findings and
reports to the child's case file.
(b) DFPS shall enter into a MOU with the
statewide organization representing court-appointed volunteer advocates in
order to set forth the portions of a child's case file to which an appointed
volunteer advocate shall have access. The MOU shall at a minimum:
(1) grant access to the following as it
relates to the current conservatorship case of the child for whom the advocate
has been appointed:
(A) demographic,
locating, and contact information for principal and collateral participants;
(B) information regarding the
child's current placement and any prior placements during the same
conservatorship episode;
(C)
information regarding the child's authorized service level, including
supporting documentation in the current Common Application for Placement of
Children in Residential Care;
(D)
the case plan as that term is defined in §
700.1319 of
this title (relating to What is a case plan?), including the child service plan
and any family service plan then in effect;
(E) information related to the child's
permanency plan, including documentation related to permanency planning
meetings held on the child's behalf;
(F) the temporary visitation schedule or
visitation plan in effect for the case;
(G) list of all legal actions and statuses in
the case;
(H) educational status
information;
(I) information
regarding the child's medical care, including the identity of the child's
medical consenter, a listing of the child's medical and mental health
assessments, and the child's medical and developmental history page; and
(J) a listing of the external
documents associated with the case.
(2) provide that the types of information to
which a volunteer advocate may gain access through the Internet application
will be expanded upon the mutual agreement of the parties as technological
enhancements are made to the Internet application and to DFPS' Information
Management Protecting Adults and Children of Texas (IMPACT) case management
system;
(3) set forth minimum
security protocols CASA organizations and their volunteers must adhere to in
order to minimize the unauthorized redisclosure of the information contained in
the Internet application;
(4)
detail the consequences for breaches of security or the unauthorized
redisclosure of information accessed through the Internet application; and
(5) clarify the responsibilities
of each party to the MOU, including any responsibilities for volunteer
advocates in registering for the application and conditions of continued access
to the system.
(c)
Information available to court-appointed volunteer advocates through the
Internet application remains confidential, and nothing in this rule shall be
construed as a waiver of the confidentiality of the information transmitted by
the application.
(d) For purposes
of this rule, the term "volunteer advocate" includes any staff of the volunteer
advocate organization with authority to access the records of a child in DFPS'
managing conservatorship.
