The criteria described in this section are used to identify operations with a pattern of contract or standard violations.

DFPS and HHSC conduct a review of an operation’s five-year compliance history. This review consists of counting the operation’s number of violations. The following count as violations:

• Deficiencies in minimum standards that are weighted medium, medium-high, or high.
• Violations of a contract with DFPS or with a single source continuum contractor (SSCC). These include Youth for Tomorrow findings, outcomes of supervision visits, and performance monitoring associated with liquidated (monetary) penalties.
• Reason to Believe dispositions (findings) in DFPS investigations.

DFPS considers an operation’s number of violations in relation to the operation’s capacity to determine the operation’s rate of violations for each of the five years reviewed. DFPS then compares the operation’s rate of violations to the rate at other operations of similar size and operation type.

If an operation has a higher rate of violations than the average rate for similar operations during at least three of the five years reviewed, the operation is considered to have a pattern of violations and must be placed on HM.

HHSC policies define protocol for operations that are linked to an operation that is placed on HM.

In HHSC’s Child Care Regulation Handbook, see 3300, Process for Determining Whether to Issue or Deny a PermitExternal Link.