By Goodman                                       H.B. No. 953

      75R4551 SKB-F                           

                                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.  Sections 107.031(a) and (b), Family Code, are

 1-6     amended to 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           (b)  In addition, in a suit filed by a governmental entity,

1-12     the court may appoint a group of court-certified volunteers to

1-13     serve as an administrative review board to advise the court as to

1-14     the conservatorship appointment and the placement of the child by

1-15     the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services or authorized

1-16     agency in substitute care.

1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-18     applies only to an appointment of a volunteer advocate made on or

1-19     after September 1, 1997.  An appointment made before September 1,

1-20     1997, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before

1-21     September 1, 1997, and that law is continued in effect for that

1-22     purpose.

1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.