BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 845

By: Lucio III

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law provides for standard court orders for possession or access to a child by a parent or other responsible person. Interested parties assert that revisions to certain provisions of these laws relating to required notice and periods of possession would be beneficial to those involved. H.B. 845 seeks to amend those laws to include certain alternatives and to clarify certain procedures.

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

H.B. 845 amends the Family Code to clarify that written notice includes notice provided by electronic mail or facsimile for purposes of such a notice required by a standard court order for possession of a child.

H.B. 845 includes as an alternative for the standard period of weekend possession during the regular school term for parents who reside 100 miles or less apart the period beginning at the time the child's school is regularly dismissed and ending at the time the child's school resumes after the weekend; as an alternative for the standard period of Thursday possession for such parents the period beginning at the time the child's school is regularly dismissed and ending at the time the child's school resumes on Friday; and as an alternative for the standard Mother's Day period of possession, regardless of the distance the parents reside apart, the period beginning at the time the child's school is regularly dismissed on the Friday preceding Mother's Day and ending at the time the child's school resumes after Mother's Day.

H.B. 845 repeals Section 153.3162, Family Code, relating to a petition by a conservator for additional periods of possession of or access to a child after the conclusion of the conservator's military deployment as compensation for periods of possession or access to which the conservator would have been otherwise entitled during such deployment.     

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.