| (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.
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