1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to enforcement of screening requirements for vision,
 1-3     hearing, and other special senses and communication disorders of
 1-4     children in certain licensed child-care facilities.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 42, Human Resources Code,
 1-7     is amended by adding Section 42.0431 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 42.0431.  ENFORCEMENT OF SCREENING REQUIREMENTS RELATING
 1-9     TO VISION, HEARING, AND OTHER SPECIAL SENSES AND COMMUNICATION
1-10     DISORDERS.  (a)  The department, after consultation with the Texas
1-11     Department of Health, shall adopt rules necessary to ensure that
1-12     children receiving care at a day-care center or group day-care home
1-13     licensed under this chapter are screened for vision, hearing, and
1-14     any other special senses or communication disorders in compliance
1-15     with rules adopted by the Texas Board of Health under Section
1-16     36.004, Health and Safety Code.
1-17           (b)  Each day-care center or group day-care home licensed
1-18     under this chapter shall maintain individual screening records for
1-19     children attending the facility who are required to be screened,
1-20     and the department may inspect those records at any reasonable
1-21     time.  The department shall coordinate the monitoring inspections
1-22     in compliance with protocol agreements adopted between the
1-23     department and the Texas Department of Health pursuant to Section
1-24     42.0442.
 2-1           (c)  This section does not apply to a day-care center or
 2-2     group day-care home operating under a certificate issued by the
 2-3     department under Subchapter E.
 2-4           SECTION 2.  The Department of Protective and Regulatory
 2-5     Services shall adopt the rules required by Section 42.0431, Human
 2-6     Resources Code, as added by this Act, as soon as possible after the
 2-7     effective date of this Act.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 908 was passed by the House on April
         28, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 142, Nays 0, 1 present, not
         voting.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 908 was passed by the Senate on May
         20, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor