82R4132 KKA-D
By: Guillen H.B. No. 567
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to authorizing justice, municipal, and juvenile courts to
obtain evidence that certain minors are in compliance with
mandatory school attendance requirements and suspend driver's
licenses or permits for failure to comply.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 45.057, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (b-1),
(b-2), and (b-3) to read as follows:
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (b-3), on [On] a
finding by a justice or municipal court that a child committed an
offense that the court has jurisdiction of under Article 4.11 or
4.14, including a traffic offense, the court:
(1) may enter an order under Subsection (b-1); and
(2) has jurisdiction to enter an order:
(A) [(1)] referring the child or the child's
parent for services under Section 264.302, Family Code;
(B) [(2)] requiring that the child attend a
special program that the court determines to be in the best interest
of the child and, if the program involves the expenditure of county
funds, that is approved by the county commissioners court,
including a rehabilitation, counseling, self-esteem and
leadership, work and job skills training, job interviewing and work
preparation, self-improvement, parenting, manners, violence
avoidance, tutoring, sensitivity training, parental
responsibility, community service, restitution, advocacy, or
mentoring program; or
(C) [(3)] requiring that the child's parent do
any act or refrain from doing any act that the court determines will
increase the likelihood that the child will comply with the orders
of the court and that is reasonable and necessary for the welfare of
the child, including:
(i) [(A)] attend a parenting class or
parental responsibility program; and
(ii) [(B)] attend the child's school
classes or functions.
(b-1) On a finding described by Subsection (b), the court
may enter an order requiring the parent and child to provide the
court, by not later than the fifth day after the date of the order,
with evidence satisfactory to the court that the child is in
compliance with the compulsory school attendance requirements
prescribed by Section 25.085, Education Code, or is exempt from
those requirements under Section 25.086, Education Code. If the
court determines that the child is not in compliance with the
compulsory school attendance requirements and is not exempt from
those requirements, the court may:
(1) include in the judgment an order for the parent and
child to comply with Section 25.085, Education Code, and provide
evidence satisfactory to the court that the child is in compliance
with that section; and
(2) if the child is at least 15 years of age, order the
Department of Public Safety to suspend the child's driver's license
or permit or, if the child does not have a license or permit, deny
the issuance of a license or permit to the child for a period
specified by the court not to exceed 365 days.
(b-2) For purposes of Subsection (b-1):
(1) a summary of a child's school attendance record
during the preceding six-month period signed by the school
principal may be provided as evidence of the child's compliance
with compulsory school attendance requirements; and
(2) written documentation indicating the basis on
which a child is exempt from compulsory school attendance
requirements may be provided to establish that the child is exempt.
(b-3) Subsections (b)(1) and (b-1) do not apply to a child
who commits an offense under Section 25.094, Education Code.
SECTION 2. Section 54.041, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1) to read as
follows:
(a) When a child has been found to have engaged in
delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision and
the juvenile court has made a finding that the child is in need of
rehabilitation or that the protection of the public or the child
requires that disposition be made, the juvenile court, on notice by
any reasonable method to all persons affected, may:
(1) order any person found by the juvenile court to
have, by a wilful act or omission, contributed to, caused, or
encouraged the child's delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a
need for supervision to do any act that the juvenile court
determines to be reasonable and necessary for the welfare of the
child or to refrain from doing any act that the juvenile court
determines to be injurious to the welfare of the child;
(2) enjoin all contact between the child and a person
who is found to be a contributing cause of the child's delinquent
conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision;
(3) after notice and a hearing of all persons affected
order any person living in the same household with the child to
participate in social or psychological counseling to assist in the
rehabilitation of the child and to strengthen the child's family
environment; [or]
(4) after notice and a hearing of all persons affected
order the child's parent or other person responsible for the child's
support to pay all or part of the reasonable costs of treatment
programs in which the child is required to participate during the
period of probation if the court finds the child's parent or person
responsible for the child's support is able to pay the costs; or
(5) order the child and the child's parent to provide
the court with evidence regarding the child's school attendance in
the manner described by Article 45.057, Code of Criminal Procedure,
and, if satisfactory evidence is not provided, order the Department
of Public Safety, in accordance with Section 54.042(f), to suspend
the child's driver's license or permit or deny the issuance of a
license or permit to the child.
(a-1) Subsection (a)(5) does not apply in a case involving
conduct described by Section 51.03(b)(2).
SECTION 3. Section 54.042(f), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(f) A juvenile court, in a disposition hearing under Section
54.04, may order the Department of Public Safety to suspend a
child's driver's license or permit or, if the child does not have a
license or permit, to deny the issuance of a license or permit to
the child for a period not to exceed 12 months if the court finds
that the child has:
(1) engaged in conduct indicating a [in] need for [of]
supervision or delinquent conduct other than the conduct described
by Subsection (a); or
(2) failed to provide satisfactory evidence of school
attendance if required under Section 54.041(a)(5).
SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
conduct that occurs on or after the effective date of this Act.
Conduct violating the penal law of this state occurs on or after the
effective date of this Act if any element of the violation occurs on
or after that date. Conduct that occurs before the effective date
of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the conduct
occurred, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.