The 88th Legislative session is in full swing with over 5,741 bills being filed in the House as of March 10th.  This year there is much interest in behavioral health which includes IDD services and supports.  I encourage everyone to become involved and contact your local state legislator regarding their support or concern over specific bills you are following.   Thus far there are over 1,500 bills that are being tracked which directly or indirectly have a significant bearing on behavioral health.   The best way to follow these bills and get more detailed information is to visit Texas Legislature Online.  The site has many options to track bills through the legislative process, get detailed information and see changes made if it does pass all the steps to be enacted.   Here is a link you can use to get to the site, https://capitol.texas.gov/.

   

Here are just a few of the bills of many that may be of interest to you during this session.

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• HB 54: Relating to the personal needs allowance for certain Medicaid recipients who are residents of long-term care facilities.

• HB 144: Relating to an exemption from ad valorem taxation of the total appraised value of the residence homestead of an unpaid caregiver of an individual.

• HB 166: Relating to the appointment of an educational representative for certain students with disabilities.

• HB 245: Relating to community attendants under the community attendant services program.

• HB 568: Relating to education and training for peace officers on interacting with persons with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

• HB 653: Relating to guardianships of the person of wards with profound intellectual disabilities who are minors or were minors when their guardianship proceedings commenced.

• HB 1430: Relating to establishing a minimum wage for certain personal attendants under Medicaid and other programs administered by the Health and Human Services Commission.

• HB 1593: Relating to infection prevention and control programs and other measures for communicable diseases at certain long-term care facilities.

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These are just a few of the many bills currently in the system that deal specifically with IDD services and supports. Again, I encourage you to become involved and voice your support for bills that you feel will help our system in Texas in IDD services.