POOLED FUNDING FOR FOSTER CARE PREVENTIVE SERVICES

(a) The commission and the Department of Family and Protective Services shall develop and implement a plan to combine, to the extent and in the manner allowed by Section 51, Article III, Texas Constitution, and other applicable law, funds held by those agencies with funds held by other appropriate state agencies and local governmental entities to provide services designed to prevent children from being placed in foster care. The preventive services may include: (1) child and family counseling; (2) instruction in parenting and homemaking skills; (3) parental support services; (4) temporary respite care; and (5) crisis services. (b) The plan must provide for: (1) state funding to be distributed to other state agencies, local governmental entities, or private entities only as specifically directed by the terms of a grant or contract to provide preventive services; (2) procedures to ensure that funds the commission receives by gift, grant, or interagency or interlocal contract from another state agency, a local governmental entity, the federal government, or any other public or private source for purposes of this section are disbursed in accordance with the terms under which the commission received the funds; and (3) a reporting mechanism to ensure appropriate use of funds. (c) For the purposes of this section, the commission may request and accept gifts and grants under the terms of a gift, grant, or contract from a local governmental entity, a private entity, or any other public or private source for use in providing services designed to prevent children from being placed in foster care. If required by the terms of a gift, grant, or contract or by applicable law, the commission shall use the amounts received: (1) from a local governmental entity to provide the services in the geographic area of this state in which the entity is located; and (2) from the federal government or a private entity to provide the services statewide or in a particular geographic area of this state.