By Jackson S.B. No. 1653
76R7706 JMM-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the modification of a court order providing for
1-3 possession of or access to a child.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 156.301, Family Code, is amended to read
1-6 as follows:
1-7 Sec. 156.301. GROUNDS FOR MODIFICATION OF POSSESSION AND
1-8 ACCESS. The court may modify an order that sets the terms and
1-9 conditions for possession of or access to a child or that
1-10 prescribes the relative rights, privileges, duties, and powers of
1-11 conservators if:
1-12 (1) the circumstances of the child or a person
1-13 affected by the order have materially and substantially changed
1-14 since the date of the rendition of the order;
1-15 (2) the order has become unworkable or inappropriate
1-16 under existing circumstances;
1-17 (3) the notice of change of a conservator's residence
1-18 required by Chapter 105 [153] was not given or there was a change
1-19 in a conservator's residence to a place outside this state; [or]
1-20 (4) a conservator has repeatedly failed to give notice
1-21 of an inability to exercise possessory rights; or
1-22 (5) a conservator of the child has a significant
1-23 history of alcohol or drug abuse.
1-24 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-1 applies only to a motion to modify an order or portion of a decree
2-2 providing for possession of or access to a child on or after that
2-3 date. A motion filed before the effective date of this Act is
2-4 governed by the law in effect on the date the motion was filed, and
2-5 the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-6 (b) The enactment of this Act does not by itself constitute
2-7 a material and substantial change of circumstances sufficient to
2-8 warrant modification of a court order or portion of a decree that
2-9 provides for possession of or access to a child rendered before the
2-10 effective date of this Act.
2-11 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-12 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.