BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 768

By: Uresti

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties assert that certain revisions to provisions relating to suits affecting the parent-child relationship are necessary to ensure the state is in compliance with provisions of the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which provides federal funding to states in support of child abuse prevention, assessment, investigation, prosecution, and treatment activities and certain grants for demonstration programs and projects. S.B. 768 seeks to make the necessary revisions.

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

S.B. 768 amends the Family Code to clarify, in provisions relating to the appointment of a guardian ad litem and attorney ad litem in certain suits affecting the parent-child relationship filed by a governmental entity, that such appointments must be made before an adversary hearing conducted under provisions relating to such suits, rather than before the full adversary hearing. The bill expands the conditions under which a court is authorized to order termination of the parent-child relationship to include finding by clear and convincing evidence that the person has been convicted or placed on community supervision, including deferred adjudication community supervision, for being criminally responsible for the death or serious injury of a child under a law of another state, federal law, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice that contains elements that are substantially similar to specified Penal Code provisions. The bill removes from those conditions a finding by clear and convincing evidence that the parent has been convicted of the murder or capital murder of the other parent of the child, of criminal attempt to commit such an offense, or of criminal solicitation of such an offense under the law of a foreign country that contains elements that are substantially similar to the elements of such an offense.

S.B. 768, in a provision requiring the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to provide specified information regarding a child taken into possession by DFPS or another agency to certain individuals, specifies that DFPS is required to provide such information to each adult DFPS is able to identify and locate who is related to the child within the third degree by consanguinity or is an adult relative of the alleged father of the child who DFPS determines is most likely to be the child's biological father or who is identified as a potential relative or designated caregiver on the proposed child placement resources form, rather than an adult who satisfies both of those conditions.

S.B. 768 expands the circumstances under which a court is authorized to find that a parent has subjected a child to aggravated circumstances, for purposes of waiving the requirement of a service plan and the requirement to make reasonable efforts to return a child to a parent and accelerating the trial, to include the circumstance of a child of the parent other than the child who is the subject of a suit being a victim of serious bodily injury or sexual abuse inflicted by the parent or by another person with the parent's consent and to include the circumstance of the parent being required under any state or federal law to register with a sex offender registry.

S.B. 768 authorizes a court, in provisions relating to a dismissal of a suit affecting the parent-child relationship in which DFPS or an authorized agency has been appointed or designated temporary or permanent managing conservator of the child after one year and in provisions relating to the monitored return of a child to a parent in such a suit, to retain such a suit on the court's docket if, after commencement of the initial trial on the merits within the required time frames, the court grants a motion for a new trial or mistrial or the case is remanded to the court by an appellate court following an appeal of the court's final order for the child. The bill requires the court, if it retains the suit on the court's docket, to render an order in which the court schedules a new date on which the suit will be dismissed if the new trial has not commenced, which must be a date not later than the 180th day after the date the motion for a new trial or mistrial is granted or the date the appellate court remanded the case; sets the new trial on the merits for a date not later than the specified date; and makes further temporary orders for the safety and welfare of the child as necessary to avoid further delay in resolving the suit. The bill requires the court, if it grants such an extension but does not commence the trial on the merits before the new dismissal date, to dismiss the suit. The bill prohibits the court from granting an additional extension that extends the suit beyond the applicable required date for dismissal.

S.B. 768 establishes that a suit affecting the parent-child relationship in which DFPS or an authorized agency has been appointed or designated temporary or permanent managing conservator of the child is not required to be dismissed under provisions relating to the dismissal of such a suit after one year or the monitored return of a child to a parent in such a suit if the associate judge commences the trial on the merits before the applicable deadline for dismissal regardless of whether a de novo hearing is requested before the referring court after the trial before the associate judge concludes. The bill removes provisions establishing that a proposed order or judgment rendered by an associate judge that meets certain requirements is considered a final order for purposes of the dismissal of such a suit after one year regardless of whether a de novo hearing is requested before the referring court.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.