BILL ANALYSIS
By: West, Royce
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Child abuse and neglect continues to be an important issue about which insufficient training may be received by judicial officers. The purpose of this bill is to mandate additional training in this area.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
The bill would amend Section 22.110, Government Code by changing the heading to add the word "neglect" and adding child neglect to the problems about which judicial training is to be provided. The bill would also require 10 hours of training within the first term of office or first four years of service for judges and officers to which the section applies. This is an increase of 2 hours from the current 8 hour requirement. A new requirement in the bill is that at least 2 hours of such training must be dedicated to issues related to child abuse and neglect and must cover at least 2 topics in an expanded list of topics listed elsewhere in the section. The continuing training requirement during successive terms or four year periods is raised to 4 hours from 3 hours, one hour of which must be dedicated to issues of child abuse and neglect. The bill also provides requirements for organizations sponsoring training. The act will apply with respect to the training required in the first term or first four years of office only to a judge who has not completed required initial training related to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse and neglect before September 1, 2007.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2007.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
The substitute changes the number of hours of training required in Section 2 of the bill from 12 hours to 10 hours. The substitute also adds a provision not in the original providing for requirements applicable to organizations sponsoring training on child abuse and neglect.