By Serna                                        H.B. No. 1092

      75R4841 MCK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the definition of a missing child.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 79.001(3), Human Resources Code, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6                 (3)  "Missing child" means a child whose whereabouts

 1-7     are unknown to the child's legal custodian, the circumstances of

 1-8     whose absence indicate that:

 1-9                       (A)  the child did not voluntarily leave the care

1-10     and control of the custodian, and the taking of the child was not

1-11     authorized by law; [or]

1-12                       (B)  the child voluntarily left the care and

1-13     control of his legal custodian without the custodian's consent and

1-14     without intent to return; or

1-15                       (C)  the child was taken or retained in violation

1-16     of the terms of a court order for possession of or access to the

1-17     child.

1-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.