![]() ![]() John Raney, Mihaela Plesa, and Benjamin Bumgarner and SB 1844 by Sen. These bills reflect one of the recommendations of the Texas School Readiness Dashboard. Since last session, 12-month postpartum coverage has been implemented by most states, including other Southern states such as Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Governor Abbott, the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, and the Texas GOP platform have all called for extending coverage to one year after pregnancy. Nathan Johnson, and several similar bills will allow moms to continue using their Medicaid health insurance for a full year after pregnancy.Īfter March 2023, Texas will resume cutting off moms’ Medicaid insurance 60 days after pregnancy, leaving many new moms uninsured at a pivotal time for their health and their baby’s healthy development. ![]() To address this challenge, these bills require a third party to audit Texas’ minimum standards for foster care providers and recommend how to align state standards with federally-recommended best practices, prioritize child safety, and open up more opportunities for normal childhood experiences within foster care HB 12 by Rep. Foster care providers report that, in addition to legitimate safety standards, there are unnecessarily burdensome regulations that make it harder for them to stay open. Serious safety issues discovered through the federal foster care lawsuit resulted in the rapid closure of many foster care providers in recent years, exacerbating the longstanding lack of safe placements for Texas youth with high needs. Kevin Sparks will right-size state regulations for foster care providers to promote safety and avoid unnecessary, burdensome rules. HB 1517 by Chair James Frank and SB 593 by Sen. This list of a dozen bills does not include the most important bill of the session, the state budget, which will be critical for adequately funding ECI for toddlers with disabilities, family preservation services that keep kids safely out of foster care, placing kids with relatives instead of strangers in foster care, support to keep high-quality child care open for working families, staff and technology to process Medicaid applications, and much more. The bills highlighted below cover health care, child care, pre-k, student mental health, juvenile justice, emergent bilingual students, foster care, and more. These bills are a reminder that there are real opportunities for legislators and advocates to advance policies that improve the lives and futures of Texas kids. Today we are highlighting a dozen good ones for kids - just a sample of some of the important children’s bills that legislators have filed and that we’re advocating for this session. Thousands of bills have already been filed for the 2023 Texas legislative session. ![]()
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