By Allen                                              H.B. No. 3250
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the establishment of an infant care and parenting
 1-3     program in the Texas Youth Commission.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 61, Subchapter E, Human Resources Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Section 61.0762 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 61.0762.  INFANT CARE AND PARENTING PROGRAM.  (a)  The
 1-8     commission may establish infant care and parenting programs for
 1-9     children who are parents.
1-10           (b)  The commission may permit a child who is the mother of
1-11     an infant younger than 36 months to have possession of her infant
1-12     in a residential program that has an infant care and parenting
1-13     program until the infant reaches the age of 36 months or the mother
1-14     is released under supervision if:
1-15                 (1)  the infant's father or another relative or
1-16     guardian of the infant agree in advance of the infant's placement
1-17     with the infant's mother to assume possession of the infant
1-18     immediately upon notice by the commission to do so;
1-19                 (2)  the infant's parents knowledge that by permitting
1-20     the mother to have possession of the infant while the mother is
1-21     confined in a residential facility, the commission assumes no
 2-1     responsibility for the infant's care beyond the responsibility of
 2-2     care that is ordinarily due the infant's mother and the reasonable
 2-3     accommodations that are necessary for the mother's care of the
 2-4     infant; and;
 2-5                 (3)  the commission determines that the placement is in
 2-6     the best interest of both the child and her infant.
 2-7           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 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.