Amend CSHB 1826 by adding the following appropriately numbered section and renumbering existing sections appropriately: SECTION____.(a)Subchapter C, Chapter 42, Human Resources Code, is amended by adding Section 42.0535 to read as follow: Sec.42.0535. REQUIRED INFORMATION FOR VERIFICATION. (a) A child-placing agency that seeks to verify an agency home or an agency group home shall request background information about the agency home or group home from a child-placing agency that has previously verified that agency home or agency group home. (b) Notwithstanding Section 261.201, Family Code, a child-placing agency that has verified an agency home or an agency group home is required to release to another child-placing agency background information requested under Subsection (a). (c) A child-placing agency that releases background information under this section is immune from civil and criminal liabilty for the release of the information. (d) For purposes of this section, background information means the home study under which the agency home or agency group home was verified by the previous child placing agency and any record of non-compliance with state minimum standards received and the resolution of any such non-compliance by the previous child placing agency. (b) This section takes effect September 1, 1997, and applies only to the release by a child-placing agency of background information about an agency home or agency group home on or after that date. The release of background information before that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this section, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.