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Assisted Living in Texas: Type A vs. Type B Licensing and Cost
Key takeaways
- Texas licenses facilities as Type A (residents who can evacuate unassisted) or Type B (residents who need evacuation help or overnight care).
- The license type directly determines what level of resident a facility can legally admit and keep.
- A 2025 state law (House Bill 3595) required every facility to adopt an emergency preparedness plan for power outages by January 1, 2026.
- Ask which license type a specific facility holds before assuming it can accommodate a resident's actual needs long-term.
Texas assisted living facilities are licensed under the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as either Type A or Type B — a distinction that isn't just paperwork, since it determines what level of resident a facility is legally allowed to admit and keep.
Type A vs. Type B
A Type A facility may care for residents who are physically and mentally capable of evacuating the building unassisted, don't require routine attendance during sleeping hours, and can follow directions in an emergency. A Type B facility is licensed for residents who may need staff assistance to evacuate, require overnight staff attendance, or need help transferring — meaningfully higher-acuity residents than a Type A facility is permitted to serve.
Why this matters for choosing a community
A resident whose needs exceed a Type A facility's license — needing overnight attendance, for instance — may need to move again as care needs increase, even if the community itself is otherwise a good fit. Confirming a facility's license type against a resident's current and reasonably anticipated near-term needs avoids a disruptive move later.
A recent regulatory update
Texas House Bill 3595, signed in June 2025 and effective September 1, 2025, required every assisted living facility to adopt an emergency preparedness and contingency operations plan by January 1, 2026. During a power outage the plan must provide a climate-controlled area of refuge (68–82°F), and the facility must notify the state of outages lasting more than 12 hours. Families can ask for a summary of the plan — a real, recent requirement worth confirming a facility has met.
Cost in Texas
Costs vary significantly across Texas's major metro areas and rural regions. See assisted living costs by state for the national comparison, and get a specific community's real fee schedule for the apartment and care level under consideration.
Questions worth asking in writing
- Is this facility licensed as Type A or Type B, and does that match this resident's current needs and likely needs over the next couple of years?
- Can you confirm your emergency preparedness and contingency operations plan is current, as required under HB 3595?
- What is the base fee and full fee schedule for the specific apartment and care level we're considering?
Have the actual documents?
CareCheck reads the residency agreement, fee schedule, care assessment, and any written offer as one set — pulling out every fee, linking each to the page it came from, and flagging where the documents disagree.
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How Texas's notice rules compare with every other state →
Sources
- 26 Tex. Admin. Code § 553.5 - Types of Assisted Living Facilities — Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law School)
- Assisted Living Facilities (ALF) | Texas Health and Human Services — Texas Health and Human Services Commission
- H.B. No. 3595 (Enrolled version) — Texas Legislature
- Bill History: HB 3595, 89th Legislature (R) — Texas Legislature Online