By Henderson                                          S.B. No. 1573
       74R7289 MJW-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to powers and duties of parents appointed as conservators
    1-3  of a child in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 14.02(a), Family Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (a)  If both parents are appointed as conservators of the
    1-8  child, either by agreement between the parties or by court order,
    1-9  the court shall specify which parent has the power to enroll the
   1-10  child in school and other <the> rights, privileges, duties, and
   1-11  powers of a parent that are to be <retained by both parents, the
   1-12  rights, privileges, duties, and powers of a parent that are to be
   1-13  exercised jointly, and the rights, privileges, duties, and powers
   1-14  that are to be> exercised exclusively by one parent.  Each parent
   1-15  has a duty to inform the other parent in a timely manner of
   1-16  significant <retains the right to receive> information <from the
   1-17  other parent> concerning the health, education, and welfare of the
   1-18  child and, to the extent possible, the right to confer with the
   1-19  other parent before making a decision concerning the health,
   1-20  education, and welfare of the child, and the court shall specify
   1-21  these rights in the order.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-23  applies only to an order rendered by a court in a suit affecting
   1-24  the parent-child relationship that is filed on or after the
    2-1  effective date of this Act.
    2-2        (b)  An order rendered by a court in a suit affecting the
    2-3  parent-child relationship that is filed before the effective date
    2-4  of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the date the suit is
    2-5  filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.