By:  Hill                                             H.B. No. 2155
       73R1382 MJW-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the continuation of child support for certain children
    1-3  over 18 years of age pursuing a college degree.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 14.05(a), Family Code, as added by
    1-6  Section 13, Chapter 25, Acts of the 71st Legislature, 1st Called
    1-7  Session, 1989, is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (a)  The court may order either or both parents to make
    1-9  periodic payments or, for good cause shown, order a lump-sum
   1-10  payment or purchase an annuity, or any combination of periodic
   1-11  payments, lump-sum payments, or annuity purchases for the support
   1-12  of the child until he or she is 18 years of age in the manner and
   1-13  to or for the benefit of the persons specified by the court in the
   1-14  decree.  The court of continuing exclusive jurisdiction may render
   1-15  an original support order, modify an existing order, or render a
   1-16  new order extending child support past the 18th birthday of the
   1-17  child, whether the request for such an order is filed before or
   1-18  after the child's 18th birthday, if the child is fully enrolled in
   1-19  either an accredited secondary school in a program leading toward a
   1-20  high school diploma or a public or private institution of higher
   1-21  education accredited by a recognized accrediting agency as defined
   1-22  by Section 61.003, Education Code, in a program leading to an
   1-23  undergraduate degree.  The order for periodic support may provide
   1-24  that payments continue until the end of the school year in which
    2-1  the child graduates.  The order may not require support payments
    2-2  past the child's 22nd birthday, regardless of whether the child has
    2-3  graduated on or before that date.  In addition, the court may order
    2-4  a parent obligated to support a child to set aside property to be
    2-5  administered for the support of the child in the manner and by the
    2-6  persons specified by the court in the decree.  In determining the
    2-7  amount of child support, the court shall consider the child support
    2-8  guidelines in effect in this state.
    2-9        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-10  applies only to a support order or a modification of a support
   2-11  order that is issued on or after the effective date.  A support
   2-12  order or a modification of a support order that is issued before
   2-13  the effective date is governed by the law then in effect, and the
   2-14  former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-15        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.