By Schechter, Hilderbran H.B. No. 847
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to access to criminal history information records by the
1-3 Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 22.006(a), Human Resources Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) Subject to the availability of funds appropriated by the
1-8 legislature, the <The> department is entitled to obtain criminal
1-9 history information records maintained by the Department of Public
1-10 Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identification
1-11 division, or another law enforcement agency to investigate:
1-12 (1) owners and employees of, and applicants for
1-13 employment at, a child-care facility licensed, registered, or
1-14 certified or applying for a license, registration, or certification
1-15 under Chapter 42 of this code;
1-16 (2) residents of a registered family home, excluding
1-17 children in the home's care and the parents of the children;
1-18 (3) a person providing or applying to provide adoptive
1-19 or foster care for children in the care of the department and other
1-20 adults living with that person in the residence in which the child
1-21 will reside;
1-22 (4) a department employee who is engaged in the direct
1-23 delivery of protective services to children, elderly persons, or
1-24 persons with a disability on the date the department implements
2-1 this section;
2-2 (5) a person applying for a position with the
2-3 department, the duties of which include direct delivery of
2-4 protective services to children, elderly persons, or persons with a
2-5 disability;
2-6 (6) a volunteer or person applying as a volunteer with
2-7 a local affiliate in this state of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of
2-8 America or of a program known as "I Have a Dream/Houston";
2-9 (7) a person employed by a business entity which
2-10 provides in-home respite care of children with temporary illnesses;
2-11 (8) a person employed by a home health agency; <or>
2-12 (9) a volunteer or person applying as a volunteer with
2-13 an organization which provides court-appointed special advocates
2-14 for abused or neglected children;
2-15 (10) a person who is the subject of a report the
2-16 department receives alleging that the person has abused or
2-17 neglected a child, elderly persons, or persons with a disability,
2-18 provided that report has proven to have merit after investigation;
2-19 or
2-20 (11) a relative providing or applying to provide
2-21 in-home care for a child in the care of the department and other
2-22 adults living with that relative in the residence in which the
2-23 child will reside.
2-24 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-2 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-3 passage, and it is so enacted.