By: Moncrief S.B. No. 208
99S0021/1
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to protecting against family violence in family law cases.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 153.001, Family Code, is
1-4 amended to read as follows:
1-5 (a) The public policy of this state is to:
1-6 (1) assure that children will have frequent and
1-7 continuing contact with parents who have shown the ability to act
1-8 in the best interest of the child;
1-9 (2) provide a safe, stable, and nonviolent environment
1-10 for the child; and
1-11 (3) encourage parents to share in the rights and
1-12 duties of raising their child after the parents have separated or
1-13 dissolved their marriage.
1-14 SECTION 2. Section 153.004, Family Code, is amended by
1-15 amending Subsections (b) and (c) and by adding Subsection (d) to
1-16 read as follows:
1-17 (b) The court shall [may] not appoint joint managing
1-18 conservators if credible evidence is presented of a history or
1-19 pattern of past or present child neglect, or physical or sexual
1-20 abuse by one parent directed against the other parent, a spouse, or
1-21 a child.
1-22 (c) The court shall not appoint as sole managing conservator
1-23 a party who has a history of committing family violence as defined
1-24 by Section 71.004 unless the court finds by a preponderance of the
2-1 evidence that:
2-2 (1) the party has successfully completed a battering
2-3 intervention and prevention program as provided by Section 85.022
2-4 or, if such a program is not available, has successfully completed
2-5 a course of treatment pursuant to Section 153.010;
2-6 (2) the party is not currently abusing alcohol or a
2-7 controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety
2-8 Code; and
2-9 (3) appointing the other party as sole managing
2-10 conservator would endanger the physical or emotional welfare of the
2-11 child.
2-12 (d) The court shall not award possession of a child to a
2-13 party who has a history of committing family violence as defined by
2-14 Section 71.004 unless the court:
2-15 (1) finds that awarding possession to the party would
2-16 not endanger the physical or emotional welfare of the child; and
2-17 (2) enters an order for possession designed to protect
2-18 the safety and well-being of the child and the victim of family
2-19 violence which may include an order that:
2-20 (A) the periods of possession be continuously
2-21 supervised by an agency or a person chosen by the court;
2-22 (B) the exchange of the child occur in a
2-23 protective setting;
2-24 (C) the party abstain from the possession or
2-25 consumption of alcohol or a controlled substance, as defined by
2-26 Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code, prior to or during the period
3-1 of possession; or
3-2 (D) the party attend and complete a battering
3-3 intervention and prevention program as provided by Section 85.022
3-4 or, if such program is not available, complete a course of
3-5 treatment pursuant to Section 153.010 [consider the commission of
3-6 family violence in determining whether to deny, restrict, or limit
3-7 the possession of a child by a parent who is appointed as a
3-8 possessory conservator].
3-9 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
3-10 applies to a pending suit affecting the parent-child relationship,
3-11 without regard to whether the suit was commenced before, on, or
3-12 after the effective date of this Act.
3-13 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-14 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-15 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-16 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-17 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.