By:  Whitmire                                         S.B. No. 1607
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the establishment of an infant care and parenting
 1-2     program in the Texas Youth Commission.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 61, Subchapter E, Human Resources Code,
 1-5     is amended by adding Section 61.0762 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 61.0762.  Infant Care and Parenting Program.  (a)  The
 1-7     commission may establish infant care and parenting programs for
 1-8     children who are parents.
 1-9           (b)  The commission may permit a child who is the mother of
1-10     an infant younger than 36 months to have possession of her infant
1-11     in a residential program that has an infant care and parenting
1-12     program until the infant reaches the age of 36 months or the mother
1-13     is released under supervision if:
1-14                 (1)  the infant's father or another relative or
1-15     guardian of the infant agree in advance of the infant's placement
1-16     with the infant's mother to assume possession of the infant
1-17     immediately upon notice by the commission to do so;
1-18                 (2)  the infant's parents acknowledge that by
1-19     permitting the mother to have possession of the infant while the
1-20     mother is confined in a residential facility, the commission
1-21     assumes no responsibility for the infant's care beyond the
1-22     responsibility of care that is ordinarily due the infant's mother
 2-1     and the reasonable accommodations that are necessary for the
 2-2     mother's care of the infant; and
 2-3                 (3)  the commission determines that the placement is in
 2-4     the best interest of both the child and her infant.
 2-5           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.