SECTION 748.1209. What orientation must I provide a child?

(a) Within seven days of admission, you must provide orientation to each newly admitted child who is five years old or older. You must gear orientation to the intellectual level of the child.

(b) Orientation must include information about your policies on the following:

(1) Visitation, including family visitation and overnight visitation;

(2) Mail;

(3) Telephone calls;

(4) Gifts;

(5) Personal possessions, including any limits placed on the possessions the child may or may not have;

(6) Emergency behavior intervention, including your policies and practices on the use of personal restraint and the child's input on preferred de-escalation techniques that caregivers can use to assist the child in the de-escalation process;

(7) Discipline;

(8) The religious program and practices;

(9) The educational program;

(10) Trips away from the operation;

(11) Program expectations and rules;

(12) A general daily schedule for routine activities for children in care; and

(13) Internal grievance procedures.

(c) Orientation must include information on how to:

(1) Make complaints to outside agencies; and

(2) Contact parties to a child's case (i.e. caseworker, attorney ad litem, guardian ad litem, CASA worker, etc.).

(d) You must document in the child's record when the orientation occurred, any item that the orientation did not include, and the reason that the orientation did not include that item.

Source Note: The provisions of this §748.1209 adopted to be effective January 1, 2007, 31 TexReg 7377; amended to be effective September 1, 2010, 35 TexReg 7497; amended to be effective January 1, 2017, 41 TexReg 10393; transferred effective March 9, 2018, as published in the Texas Register February 16, 2018, 43 TexReg 909