1-1 By: Thompson, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Duncan) H.B. No. 2005
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 1997;
1-3 April 29, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Jurisprudence; May 15, 1997, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the possession of and access to grandchildren by
1-9 grandparents.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 153.433, Family Code, is amended to read
1-12 as follows:
1-13 Sec. 153.433. POSSESSION OF AND ACCESS TO GRANDCHILD. The
1-14 court shall [may] order reasonable access to a grandchild by a
1-15 grandparent if:
1-16 (1) at the time the relief is requested, at least one
1-17 biological or adoptive parent of the child has not had that
1-18 parent's parental rights terminated; and
1-19 (2) access is in the best interest of the child, and
1-20 at least one of the following facts is present:
1-21 (A) the grandparent requesting access to the
1-22 child is a parent of a parent of the child and that parent of the
1-23 child has been incarcerated in jail or prison during the
1-24 three-month period preceding the filing of the petition or has been
1-25 found by a court to be incompetent or is dead;
1-26 (B) the parents of the child are divorced or
1-27 have been living apart for the three-month period preceding the
1-28 filing of the petition or a suit for the dissolution of the
1-29 parents' marriage is pending;
1-30 (C) the child has been abused or neglected by a
1-31 parent of the child;
1-32 (D) the child has been adjudicated to be a child
1-33 in need of supervision or a delinquent child under Title 3;
1-34 (E) the grandparent requesting access to the
1-35 child is the parent of a person whose parent-child relationship
1-36 with the child has been terminated by court order; or
1-37 (F) the child has resided with the grandparent
1-38 requesting access to the child for at least six months within the
1-39 24-month period preceding the filing of the petition.
1-40 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-41 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-45 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-46 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-47 * * * * *