By West                                                H.B. No. 228
         76R471 MCK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to an abused child's removal from and return to certain
 1-3     households.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 262, Family Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 262.2012 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 262.2012.  CHILD LIVING IN SAME RESIDENCE AS ABUSER.
 1-8     (a)  If the court finds sufficient evidence to satisfy a person of
 1-9     ordinary prudence and caution that a person abused a child, the
1-10     court may not order the return of the child to the residence of the
1-11     child's parent, managing conservator, possessory conservator,
1-12     guardian, caretaker, or custodian if the person found to have
1-13     abused the child lives in that residence.
1-14           (b)  If the person found to have abused the child moves into
1-15     the child's residence after the child is returned to the parent,
1-16     managing conservator, possessory conservator, guardian, caretaker,
1-17     or custodian, the  Department of Protective and Regulatory Services
1-18     shall remove the child from that residence.
1-19           (c)  If the department has removed a  child at least two
1-20     times under Subsection (b), the department may return the child to
1-21     the residence of the child's parent, managing conservator,
1-22     possessory conservator, guardian, caretaker, or custodian only
1-23     after an order is obtained from the court that permanently
1-24     prohibits the person found to have abused the child from having any
 2-1     contact with the child.
 2-2           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
 2-3     applies only to the return of a child to or the removal of a child
 2-4     from a residence following a report of child abuse made on or after
 2-5     June 1, 1999.  A return of a child to or a removal of a child from
 2-6     a residence following a report made before June 1, 1999, is
 2-7     governed by the law in effect on the date the report was made, and
 2-8     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-9           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.