H.B. No. 847
    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.