FAMILY-BASED ALTERNATIVES SYSTEM DESIGN REQUIREMENTS.

(a) The family-based alternatives system must provide for:

(1) recruiting and training alternative families to provide services for children;

(2) comprehensively assessing each child in need of services and each alternative family available to provide services, as necessary to identify the most appropriate alternative family for the child's placement;

(3) providing to a child's parents or guardian information regarding the availability of a family-based alternative;

(4) identifying each child residing in an institution and offering support services, including waiver services, that would enable the child to return to the child's birth family or be placed in a family-based alternative; and

(5) determining through a child's permanency plan other circumstances in which the child must be offered waiver services, including circumstances in which changes in an institution's status affect the child's placement or the quality of services the child receives.

(b) In complying with the requirement imposed by Subsection (a)(3), the commission shall ensure that the procedures for providing information to parents or a guardian permit and encourage the participation of an individual who is not affiliated with the institution in which the child resides or with an institution in which the child could be placed.

(c) In designing the family-based alternatives system, the commission shall consider and, when appropriate, incorporate current research and recommendations developed by other public and private entities involved in analyzing public policy relating to children residing in institutions.