1-1     By:  Moncrief, Bernsen                                 S.B. No. 140
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed December 4, 2000; January 11, 2001,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     January 31, 2001, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
 1-5     6, Nays 0; January 31, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the appointment of a person who has a history of abuse
 1-9     or neglect as a sole managing conservator.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 153.004, Family Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           (b)  The court may not appoint joint managing conservators if
1-14     credible evidence is presented of a history or pattern of past or
1-15     present child neglect, or physical or sexual abuse by one parent
1-16     directed against the other parent, a spouse, or a child.  It is a
1-17     rebuttable presumption that the appointment of a parent as the sole
1-18     managing conservator of a child is not in the best interest of the
1-19     child if credible evidence is presented of a history or pattern of
1-20     past or present child neglect, or physical or sexual abuse by that
1-21     parent directed against the other parent, a spouse, or a child.
1-22           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001, and
1-23     applies only to an order in a suit affecting the parent-child
1-24     relationship rendered on or after that date, without regard to
1-25     whether the suit was filed before, on, or after that date.
1-26           (b)  The enactment of this Act does not by itself constitute
1-27     a material and substantial change of circumstances sufficient to
1-28     warrant modification of a court order or portion of a decree that
1-29     provides for the possession of or access to a child rendered before
1-30     the effective date of this Act.
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