By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 475
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to provisions governing a comprehensive assessment of a
    1-2  juvenile offender when the offender first is referred to the
    1-3  juvenile court.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 53.01, Family Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-7        (d)  If the intake officer, probation officer, or other
    1-8  person authorized by the court determines that the child referred
    1-9  to juvenile court is a child within the meaning of this title, that
   1-10  there is probable cause to believe that the child engaged in
   1-11  delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision,
   1-12  and that further proceedings in the case are in the interest of the
   1-13  child or the public, the office or official designated by the
   1-14  juvenile court shall conduct a comprehensive assessment of the
   1-15  child, a copy of which shall be transferred to the juvenile court.
   1-16  The comprehensive assessment shall include information relevant to
   1-17  the child's physical, emotional, and educational needs and history
   1-18  and shall contain a recommendation regarding whether the child
   1-19  needs social services, in addition to sanctions imposed by the
   1-20  court.  In preparing the comprehensive assessment, the office or
   1-21  official designated by the juvenile court shall consider all
   1-22  relevant information regarding the child, which shall include, but
   1-23  not be limited to, written reports from probation officers,
    2-1  professional court employees, or professional consultants.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  SEVERABILITY.  If any section, sentence, clause,
    2-3  or part of this Act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such
    2-4  invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and
    2-5  it is hereby declared to be the intention of this legislature to
    2-6  have passed each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of
    2-7  the fact that any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be
    2-8  declared invalid.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect on
   2-10  September 1, 1995.
   2-11        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.