Department of Family and Protective Services
Rule Transfer

During the 85th Legislature, R.S. (2017), the Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 5 which amended Texas Human Resources Code (HRC) §40.0505 to require the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to establish an investigations division to oversee all investigations concerning abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children. Consequently, child protective services investigations, as well as the other child abuse and neglect investigations programs in DFPS were transferred to a newly created investigations division, Child Protective Investigations (CPI).

As part of the process, DFPS also created a new chapter 707 in Part 19 of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) for the CPI division and transferred the child abuse and neglect rules into this new chapter with amendments to reflect the agency's new structure and new processes. As DFPS has not yet moved the release hearing rules in Subchapter F of Chapter 707, concerning emergency and non-emergency releases of investigation findings for child protective services investigations, DFPS will be transferring these rules to newly created division 3 in Subchapter A of Chapter 707.

The rules will be transferred in the Texas Administrative Code effective January 15, 2021.

The following table outlines the rule transfer:

Figure: 40 TAC Chapter 700, Subchapter F (.pdf)

TRD-202005105