1-1     By:  Coleman, Naishtat, et al.                         H.B. No. 908
 1-2          (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)
 1-3           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 29, 1999;
 1-4     April 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Human
 1-5     Services; May 12, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-6     Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to enforcement of screening requirements for vision,
1-10     hearing, and other special senses and communication disorders of
1-11     children in certain licensed child-care facilities.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 42, Human Resources Code,
1-14     is amended by adding Section 42.0431 to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 42.0431.  ENFORCEMENT OF SCREENING REQUIREMENTS RELATING
1-16     TO VISION, HEARING, AND OTHER SPECIAL SENSES AND COMMUNICATION
1-17     DISORDERS.  (a)  The department, after consultation with the Texas
1-18     Department of Health, shall adopt rules necessary to ensure that
1-19     children receiving care at a day-care center or group day-care home
1-20     licensed under this chapter are screened for vision, hearing, and
1-21     any other special senses or communication disorders in compliance
1-22     with rules adopted by the Texas Board of Health under Section
1-23     36.004, Health and Safety Code.
1-24           (b)  Each day-care center or group day-care home licensed
1-25     under this chapter shall maintain individual screening records for
1-26     children attending the facility who are required to be screened,
1-27     and the department may inspect those records at any reasonable
1-28     time.  The department shall coordinate the monitoring inspections
1-29     in compliance with protocol agreements adopted between the
1-30     department and the Texas Department of Health pursuant to Section
1-31     42.0442.
1-32           (c)  This section does not apply to a day-care center or
1-33     group day-care home operating under a certificate issued by the
1-34     department under Subchapter E.
1-35           SECTION 2.  The Department of Protective and Regulatory
1-36     Services shall adopt the rules required by Section 42.0431, Human
1-37     Resources Code, as added by this Act, as soon as possible after the
1-38     effective date of this Act.
1-39           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-40     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-41     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-42     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-43     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-44     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-45     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-46                                  * * * * *