1-1  By:  Greenberg (Senate Sponsor - Moncrief)            H.B. No. 1109
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 15, 1995;
    1-3  May 16, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
    1-4  and Human Services; May 19, 1995, reported favorably by the
    1-5  following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0; May 19, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to a mandatory study into the circumstances and condition
    1-9  of the home of a person seeking to adopt a child.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 162.003, Family Code, as added by H.B.
   1-12  655, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, is
   1-13  amended to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 162.003.  SOCIAL STUDY.  (a)  In a suit for adoption,
   1-15  including a suit in which a private agency or individual is
   1-16  responsible for placing the child for adoption, the court shall
   1-17  order a social study as provided in Chapter 107.
   1-18        (b)  The social study required by this section must include a
   1-19  complete investigation of the circumstances and condition of the
   1-20  home of a person petitioning for the adoption of a child under this
   1-21  chapter.
   1-22        (c)  The court shall order that the cost of the social study
   1-23  be paid by the person seeking to adopt the child who is the subject
   1-24  of the social study.
   1-25        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-26  applies only to a social study ordered by a court under Section
   1-27  162.003, Family Code, as amended by this Act, on or after the
   1-28  effective date of this Act in a suit affecting the parent-child
   1-29  relationship in which an adoption is sought, without regard to
   1-30  whether the suit is filed before, on, or after the effective date
   1-31  of this Act.
   1-32        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-33  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-34  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-35  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-36  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-37                               * * * * *