By Coleman                                             H.B. No. 908
         76R2898 KKA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a requirement that certain licensed child-care
 1-3     facilities screen children for vision and hearing disorders.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 42, Human Resources Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Section 42.0431 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 42.0431.  RULES FOR VISION AND HEARING SCREENING.  (a)
 1-8     The department by rule shall require each day-care center and group
 1-9     day-care home licensed under this chapter, as a condition of
1-10     continued licensure, to screen for vision and hearing disorders
1-11     children being provided care at the center or home.
1-12           (b)  The rules must:
1-13                 (1)  specify the appropriate age or ages at which a
1-14     child is required to be screened;
1-15                 (2)  specify the frequency of the required screening;
1-16                 (3)  avoid duplication of screening conducted by
1-17     schools, preschools, and other entities; and
1-18                 (4)  require the results of the screening to be
1-19     reported to the Texas Department of Health.
1-20           (c)  This section does not apply to a day-care center or
1-21     group day-care home operating under a certificate issued by the
1-22     department under Subchapter E.
1-23           SECTION 2.  The Department of Protective and Regulatory
1-24     Services shall adopt the rules required by Section 42.0431, Human
 2-1     Resources Code, as added by this Act, as soon as possible after the
 2-2     effective date of this Act.  The rules may provide different dates
 2-3     by which different classes of day-care providers subject to the
 2-4     rules shall begin screening for vision and hearing disorders.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.