Texas licenses assisted living by residents' ability to evacuate. Type A residents must evacuate without physical staff assistance, follow emergency directions, and not need nighttime attendance. Type B residents may need staff help evacuating, nighttime attendance, and help transferring from a wheelchair, but cannot be permanently bedfast.
What this means in practice
Texas is unusual here. Most states license assisted living by acuity — how much help a resident needs. Texas licenses by evacuation capability, which is a fire-safety question rather than a care question. The practical effect is that two residents needing identical daily help can require different license types, purely because one can get themselves out of the building and the other cannot.
This catches Austin families relocating a parent from another state. A community that would have been fine in Ohio or California may not be able to accept the same resident here. Ask which license the community holds before you tour, not after you have fallen in love with the dining room.
It also determines what happens later. A Type A community is not being difficult when it says it can no longer keep your parent after a stroke — it is complying with its license.
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