BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 59

By: Goodwin

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Constituents John and Kori Delapeña lost their daughter, Cati, to drowning in 2019. The summer camp that Cati was attending had taken the campers to a pool, and while Kori told the camp that her daughter could not swim and needed to be in a life jacket, when Cati was found at the bottom of the pool, she was not wearing one. State law does not currently give organizations taking children from a day camp, school, child-care facility, or other organization to a pool or lake to engage in organized water activities clear responsibility for ensuring the safety of those children who cannot swim. The law must be updated to require that children in that situation are fitted with proper safety equipment. H.B. 59, Cati's Act, seeks to address this issue by requiring certain organizations that authorize a child to engage in an organized water activity to affirm with the child's parent or legal guardian in writing as to whether the child is able to swim or is at risk of injury or death when swimming or otherwise accessing a body of water and to provide each such child with the appropriate personal flotation device.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission in SECTION 2 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 59 amends the Health and Safety Code to require an organization, including a day camp, youth camp, school, preschool, kindergarten, nursery school, child-care facility, or any other facility providing child-care services licensed by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) that authorizes a child younger than 12 years of age to engage in an organized water activity in which participants will enter or travel on a body of water, other than a wading pool with a maximum water depth of not more than 18 inches, to do the following:

· require the child's parent or legal guardian to affirm in writing whether the child is able to swim or is at risk of injury or death when swimming or otherwise accessing a body of water; and

· provide each child who is unable to swim or is at risk of injury or death when swimming or otherwise entering a body of water with a properly fitted and fastened Type I, II, or III U.S. Coast Guard approved personal flotation device or an equivalent device, as determined by the executive commissioner of HHSC, and ensure the child is wearing the device and that it is properly fitted and fastened for the child.

The organization is not required to provide a child with a flotation device or ensure the child is wearing the device if the child is actively participating in swim instruction and the organization ensures each participant is closely supervised during the instruction. The bill's provisions do not apply to a residential child-care facility or a youth camp licensed under the Texas Youth Camp Safety and Health Act.

H.B. 59 subjects a licensed or otherwise state-regulated organization that violates the bill's provisions, or rules adopted under those provisions, to disciplinary action by any state regulatory agency with the power to impose disciplinary action on that organization as if the organization violated the agency's licensing or other regulatory laws or rules. The bill authorizes the executive commissioner to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.