AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the duties of an attorney ad litem in a suit affecting
 1-2     the parent-child relationship.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 107.014, Family Code, is
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  An attorney ad litem appointed to represent a child
 1-7     shall within a reasonable time after the appointment:
 1-8                 (1)  interview the child if the child is four years of
 1-9     age or older;
1-10                 (2)  interview individuals with significant knowledge
1-11     of the child's history and condition, including the child's foster
1-12     parents; and
1-13                 (3)  interview all parties to the suit.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to an attorney ad litem appointed on or after that
1-16     date.  An attorney ad litem appointed before the effective date of
1-17     this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the attorney
1-18     ad litem was appointed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-19     for that purpose.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-2     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 609 passed the Senate on
         March 25, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that
         the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 28, 1999, by a
         viva-voce vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 609 passed the House, with
         amendment, on May 26, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 144,
         Nays 0, two present not voting.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
         Approved:
         _______________________________
                     Date
         _______________________________
                   Governor