By:  Zaffirini                                        S.B. No. 1260
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the involuntary termination of the parent-child
    1-2  relationship.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 15, Family Code, is amended by adding
    1-5  Section 15.025 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 15.025.  INVOLUNTARY TERMINATION; FAILURE TO CARE FOR
    1-7  CHILD.  A petition by the Department of Protective and Regulatory
    1-8  Services requesting termination of the parent-child relationship
    1-9  with respect to a parent who is not the petitioner may be granted
   1-10  if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that:
   1-11              (1)  the department has been the temporary or permanent
   1-12  managing conservator of the child for one year preceding the filing
   1-13  of the petition or there is a past history of court determinations
   1-14  of abuse or neglect by the parent which led to one or more foster
   1-15  care placements of the child; and
   1-16              (2)(A)  the parent has failed substantially, without
   1-17  good cause, to comply with court orders designed to require the
   1-18  parent to provide a safe environment for the child in the parent's
   1-19  home; or
   1-20                    (B)  the parent has failed substantially, without
   1-21  good cause, to comply with a service plan ordered by the court
   1-22  designed to correct the conditions necessitating out-of-home care
   1-23  of the child; and
    2-1              (3)  despite the services or assistance reasonably made
    2-2  available to the parent, in all reasonable probability, the child
    2-3  will not be integrated into the home of the parent in the
    2-4  foreseeable future due to conduct of the parent or the conditions
    2-5  of the parent's home; and
    2-6              (4)  the termination is in the best interest of the
    2-7  child.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.