By Thompson                                      H.B. No. 523

      75R2677 SKB-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to volunteer advocates appearing at court hearings on

 1-3     behalf of children.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 107.031(a), Family Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (a)  The [In a suit filed by a governmental entity, the]

 1-8     court may appoint a person who has received the court's approved

 1-9     training and who has been certified by the court to appear at court

1-10     hearings as a volunteer advocate on behalf of the child.

1-11           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-12     applies only to an appointment of a volunteer advocate made on or

1-13     after September 1, 1997.  An appointment made before September 1,

1-14     1997, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before

1-15     September 1, 1997, and that law is continued in effect for that

1-16     purpose.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.