AUSTIN — The state has reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to improve conditions inside Texas’ state schools for the mentally disabled. Under the agreement, Texas must spend $112 million more over five years to improve standards of care, increase monitoring and oversight, and enhance staffing ratios at the facilities.
Lawmakers will reveal the details in a Friday morning hearing with the commissioner of the agency that oversees the schools and the state’s lead negotiator in the deal. Both the House and Senate must pass resolutions concurring with the deal before their session ends June 1.
The agreement calls for spending nearly $45 million in the next two years. If the money is spent and conditions improve, the oversight would be lifted in five years.
“Whether or not the Department of Justice told us this, we needed to be doing these things,” said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. “We are hoping and expecting these facilities will very quickly get up to standard.”
Nelson leads the Senate committee overseeing the state Health and Human services Commission. Her panel will hold a joint hearing with its House counterpart, led by Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, Friday to outline the deal.
The agreement follows a federal investigation last year that found widespread civil-rights violations across all 13 state institutions and years of media reports about abuse and neglect inside the facilities.
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