By Zaffirini S.B. No. 117
75R691 CLG-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the definitions of "abuse" and "neglect" for purposes
1-3 of investigations concerning children in certain facilities.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 261.001(1) and (4), Family Code, are
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (1) "Abuse" as the term applies to a child who is not
1-8 receiving services in a facility operated by, regulated by, or
1-9 providing services to the child under a contract with the Texas
1-10 Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation includes the
1-11 following acts or omissions by a person:
1-12 (A) mental or emotional injury to a child that
1-13 results in an observable and material impairment in the child's
1-14 growth, development, or psychological functioning;
1-15 (B) causing or permitting the child to be in a
1-16 situation in which the child sustains a mental or emotional injury
1-17 that results in an observable and material impairment in the
1-18 child's growth, development, or psychological functioning;
1-19 (C) physical injury that results in substantial
1-20 harm to the child, or the genuine threat of substantial harm from
1-21 physical injury to the child, including an injury that is at
1-22 variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an
1-23 accident or reasonable discipline by a parent, guardian, or
1-24 managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child
2-1 to a substantial risk of harm;
2-2 (D) failure to make a reasonable effort to
2-3 prevent an action by another person that results in physical injury
2-4 that results in substantial harm to the child;
2-5 (E) sexual conduct harmful to a child's mental,
2-6 emotional, or physical welfare;
2-7 (F) failure to make a reasonable effort to
2-8 prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child;
2-9 (G) compelling or encouraging the child to
2-10 engage in sexual conduct as defined by Section 43.01, Penal Code;
2-11 or
2-12 (H) causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging
2-13 in, or allowing the photographing, filming, or depicting of the
2-14 child if the person knew or should have known that the resulting
2-15 photograph, film, or depiction of the child is obscene as defined
2-16 by Section 43.21, Penal Code, or pornographic.
2-17 (4) "Neglect" as the term applies to a child who is
2-18 not receiving services in a facility operated by, regulated by, or
2-19 providing services to the child under a contract with the Texas
2-20 Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation includes:
2-21 (A) the leaving of a child in a situation where
2-22 the child would be exposed to a substantial risk of physical or
2-23 mental harm, without arranging for necessary care for the child,
2-24 and the demonstration of an intent not to return by a parent,
2-25 guardian, or managing or possessory conservator of the child;
2-26 (B) the following acts or omissions by a person:
2-27 (i) placing a child in or failing to
3-1 remove a child from a situation that a reasonable person would
3-2 realize requires judgment or actions beyond the child's level of
3-3 maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities and that results
3-4 in bodily injury or a substantial risk of immediate harm to the
3-5 child;
3-6 (ii) failing to seek, obtain, or follow
3-7 through with medical care for a child, with the failure resulting
3-8 in or presenting a substantial risk of death, disfigurement, or
3-9 bodily injury or with the failure resulting in an observable and
3-10 material impairment to the growth, development, or functioning of
3-11 the child;
3-12 (iii) the failure to provide a child with
3-13 food, clothing, or shelter necessary to sustain the life or health
3-14 of the child, excluding failure caused primarily by financial
3-15 inability unless relief services had been offered and refused; or
3-16 (iv) placing a child in or failing to
3-17 remove the child from a situation in which the child would be
3-18 exposed to a substantial risk of sexual conduct harmful to the
3-19 child; or
3-20 (C) the failure by the person responsible for a
3-21 child's care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to return to
3-22 the child's home without arranging for the necessary care for the
3-23 child after the child has been absent from the home for any reason,
3-24 including having been in residential placement or having run away.
3-25 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
3-26 (b) The change in law made by this Act applies only to an
3-27 investigation of an allegation of abuse or neglect of a child that
4-1 is initiated on or after the effective date of this Act. An
4-2 investigation that is initiated before the effective date of this
4-3 Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the investigation
4-4 was initiated, and the former law is continued in effect for that
4-5 purpose.
4-6 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
4-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.