The commission must collect, publish, and share daycare incident and child-safety data, and provide an annual report to the legislature.
Sec. 42.0412. COLLECTION OF LICENSED DAY-CARE CENTER DATA. (a) In this section, "group of children" and "specified age" are determined by the formula provided in the commission's minimum standards for child-care centers. (b) The commission, in collaboration with the department and using existing resources, shall collect, compile, and publish on the commission's Internet website the following data aggregated by child age on reported incidents in licensed day-care centers that threaten or impair the basic health, safety, or welfare of a child: (1) the number of incidents investigated by the commission or department and assigned the commission's highest priority; (2) the number of incidents investigated by the commission or department and assigned the commission's second-highest priority; (3) the number of violations; (4) the number of confirmed serious injuries to children; and (5) the number of child fatalities. (c) During each monitoring inspection of a licensed day-care center the commission conducts, the commission, using existing resources, shall collect the following data for each group of children four years of age and younger in the day-care center: (1) the specified age of the children in the group; (2) the number of children in the group; and (3) the number of caregivers supervising the children in the group. (c-1) The commission, using existing resources, shall collect and publish on the commission's Internet website data on the total number of employees who left employment with each licensed day-care center during the preceding calendar year. (d) The commission shall make the data collected under this section available to persons researching the factors related to child injury, maltreatment, and death in licensed day-care centers on request. (e) The commission, using existing resources, shall provide an annual report to the legislature that includes: (1) the number of confirmed serious injuries and fatalities for children four years of age and younger, aggregated by the age of the injured or deceased child, including information collected by the department, that occurred: (A) at each licensed day-care center; and (B) at a location other than a licensed day-care center; (2) the priority assigned to the investigation conducted by the commission or department in response to an incident that resulted in a serious injury or child fatality; (3) the number of investigations conducted by the commission or department at each licensed day-care center involving a child four years of age or younger that were assigned the highest priority or second-highest priority, aggregated by the age of the youngest affected child; (4) the number of violations the commission found at each licensed day-care center during investigations described by Subdivision (3); and (5) a comparison on whether children under the supervision of a licensed day-care center are more likely than children outside the supervision of a licensed day-care center to suffer a serious injury or death. (f) The commission, in collaboration with the department and using existing resources, shall research, collect, compile, and publish on the commission's Internet website, in a way that allows meaningful comparison on a pro-rata basis of the relative frequency of each event included in the information required under Subsection (b)(4) and (5), the following data aggregated by child age regarding incidents at a location other than a licensed day-care center that threaten or impair the basic health, safety, or welfare of a child: (1) the number of confirmed serious injuries to children; and (2) the number of child fatalities. (g) The commission may collaborate with one or more state agencies to perform a duty under Subsections (e) and (f). Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 969 (S.B. 708), Sec. 1, eff. June 14, 2019.