1-1  By:  Henderson                                        S.B. No. 1573
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 22, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
    1-4  April 11, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
    1-5  Nays 0; April 11, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to powers and duties of parents appointed as conservators
    1-9  of a child in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 14.02, Family Code, is
   1-12  amended to read as follows:
   1-13        (a)  If both parents are appointed as conservators of the
   1-14  child, either by agreement between the parties or by court order,
   1-15  the court shall specify which parent has the power to enroll the
   1-16  child in school and other <the> rights, privileges, duties, and
   1-17  powers of a parent that are to be <retained by both parents, the
   1-18  rights, privileges, duties, and powers of a parent that are to be
   1-19  exercised jointly, and the rights, privileges, duties, and powers
   1-20  that are to be> exercised exclusively by one parent.  Each parent
   1-21  has a duty to inform the other parent in a timely manner of
   1-22  significant <retains the right to receive> information <from the
   1-23  other parent> concerning the health, education, and welfare of the
   1-24  child and, to the extent possible, the right to confer with the
   1-25  other parent before making a decision concerning the health,
   1-26  education, and welfare of the child, and the court shall specify
   1-27  these rights in the order.
   1-28        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-29  applies only to an order rendered by a court in a suit affecting
   1-30  the parent-child relationship that is filed on or after the
   1-31  effective date of this Act.
   1-32        (b)  An order rendered by a court in a suit affecting the
   1-33  parent-child relationship that is filed before the effective date
   1-34  of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the date the suit is
   1-35  filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-36        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-37  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-38  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-39  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-40  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-41                               * * * * *