By Brady                                              H.B. No. 2569
       74R7709 JMM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to hearings on the removal of a child from the child's
    1-3  home during an investigation of child abuse.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 17, Family Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 17.051 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 17.051.  EXPEDITED HEARING AND APPEAL.  (a) The
    1-8  Department of Protective and Regulatory Services is entitled to an
    1-9  expedited hearing under this chapter in any proceeding in which a
   1-10  hearing is required if the department determines that a child
   1-11  should be removed from the child's home because of an immediate
   1-12  danger to the physical health or safety of the child.
   1-13        (b)  In any proceeding in which an expedited hearing is held
   1-14  under Subsection (a), the department is entitled to an expedited
   1-15  appeal on a ruling by a court that the child may not be removed
   1-16  from the child's home.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-18  applies to a proceeding in which an investigation of the abuse of a
   1-19  child is pending on or after that date.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.