1-1 By: Edwards (Senate Sponsor - Ellis) H.B. No. 2455 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 26, 1999; 1-3 April 27, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on 1-4 Jurisprudence; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following 1-5 vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to access for certain persons to the medical records of a 1-9 child. 1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-11 SECTION 1. Section 153.371, Family Code, is amended to read 1-12 as follows: 1-13 Sec. 153.371. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF NONPARENT APPOINTED AS 1-14 SOLE MANAGING CONSERVATOR. Unless limited by court order or other 1-15 provisions of this chapter, a nonparent, licensed child-placing 1-16 agency, or authorized agency appointed as a managing conservator 1-17 of the child has the following rights and duties: 1-18 (1) the right to have physical possession and to 1-19 direct the moral and religious training of the child; 1-20 (2) the duty of care, control, protection, and 1-21 reasonable discipline of the child; 1-22 (3) the duty to provide the child with clothing, food, 1-23 shelter, education, and medical, psychological, and dental care; 1-24 (4) the right to consent for the child to medical, 1-25 psychiatric, psychological, dental, and surgical treatment and to 1-26 have access to the child's medical records; 1-27 (5) the right to receive and give receipt for payments 1-28 for the support of the child and to hold or disburse funds for the 1-29 benefit of the child; 1-30 (6) the right to the services and earnings of the 1-31 child; 1-32 (7) the right to consent to marriage and to enlistment 1-33 in the armed forces of the United States; 1-34 (8) the right to represent the child in legal action 1-35 and to make other decisions of substantial legal significance 1-36 concerning the child; 1-37 (9) except when a guardian of the child's estate or a 1-38 guardian or attorney ad litem has been appointed for the child, the 1-39 right to act as an agent of the child in relation to the child's 1-40 estate if the child's action is required by a state, the United 1-41 States, or a foreign government; 1-42 (10) the right to establish the primary residence of 1-43 the child and to make decisions regarding the child's education; 1-44 and 1-45 (11) if the parent-child relationship has been 1-46 terminated with respect to the parents, or only living parent, or 1-47 if there is no living parent, the right to consent to the adoption 1-48 of the child and to make any other decision concerning the child 1-49 that a parent could make. 1-50 SECTION 2. Subchapter G, Chapter 153, Family Code, is 1-51 amended by adding Section 153.3721 to read as follows: 1-52 Sec. 153.3721. ACCESS TO CERTAIN RECORDS BY NONPARENT JOINT 1-53 MANAGING CONSERVATOR. Unless limited by court order or other 1-54 provisions of this chapter, a nonparent joint managing conservator 1-55 has the right of access to the medical records of the child, 1-56 without regard to whether the right is specified in the order. 1-57 SECTION 3. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999. 1-58 (b) The change in law made by this Act entitles a person to 1-59 access to medical records without regard to whether the medical 1-60 records were made before, on, or after the effective date of this 1-61 Act. 1-62 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 1-63 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-64 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-1 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-2 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended. 2-3 * * * * *