S.B. No. 789
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to possession and delivery of a child in an emergency
    1-2  without a court order.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 262, Family Code, as added
    1-5  by H.B. No. 655, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session,
    1-6  1995, is amended by adding Section 262.007 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 262.007.  POSSESSION AND DELIVERY OF MISSING CHILD.
    1-8  (a)  A law enforcement officer who, during a criminal investigation
    1-9  relating to a child's custody, discovers  that a child is a missing
   1-10  child and believes that a person may flee with or conceal the child
   1-11  may take possession of the child and provide for the delivery of
   1-12  the child as provided by Subsection (b).
   1-13        (b)  An officer who takes possession of a child under
   1-14  Subsection (a) shall deliver or arrange for the delivery of the
   1-15  child to a person entitled to possession of the child.
   1-16        (c)  If a person entitled to possession of the child is not
   1-17  immediately available to take possession of the child, the law
   1-18  enforcement officer shall deliver the child to the Department of
   1-19  Protective and Regulatory Services.  Until a person entitled to
   1-20  possession of the child takes possession of the child, the
   1-21  department may, without a court order, retain possession of the
   1-22  child not longer than 14 days after the date the child is delivered
   1-23  to the department.  While the department retains possession of a
   1-24  child under this subsection, the department may place the child in
    2-1  foster home care.  If a parent or other person entitled to
    2-2  possession of the child does not take possession of the child
    2-3  before the 15th day after the date the child is delivered to the
    2-4  department, the department shall proceed under this chapter as if
    2-5  the law enforcement officer took possession of the child under
    2-6  Section 262.104.
    2-7        SECTION 2.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-8        SECTION 3.   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.