By Greenberg                                          H.B. No. 3741
         76R11383 KKA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to regulation by the Department of Protective and
 1-3     Regulatory Services of certain child-care facilities, family homes,
 1-4     and child-placing  agencies.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 42.042(m), Human Resources Code, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (m)  In determining minimum standards relating to
 1-9     staff-to-child ratios, group sizes, or square footage requirements
1-10     applicable to [for] nonresidential child-care facilities that
1-11     provide care for less than 24 hours a day, the department shall,
1-12     within available appropriations, conduct a comprehensive
1-13     cost-benefit analysis and economic impact study that includes
1-14     families and licensed child-care providers.
1-15           SECTION 2.  Section 42.045(c), Human Resources Code, is
1-16     amended to read as follows:
1-17           (c)  If a child-placing agency terminates operation as a
1-18     child-placing agency, it shall, after giving notice to the
1-19     department, transfer its files and records concerning adopted
1-20     children, their biological families, and their adoptive families to
1-21     the Bureau of Vital Statistics [department] or, after giving notice
1-22     to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, to a facility licensed by the
1-23     department to place children for adoption.
1-24           SECTION 3.  Section 42.078(e), Human Resources Code, is
 2-1     amended to read as follows:
 2-2           (e)  If the executive director determines that a violation
 2-3     has occurred, the executive director may issue a recommendation on
 2-4     the imposition of a penalty, including a recommendation on the
 2-5     amount of the penalty.
 2-6           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-7           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.