83R8774 KKA-D
By: Rodriguez of Bexar H.B. No. 2773
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to intervention by foster parents in certain suits
affecting the parent-child relationship.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 102.004, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (b-1) to read as
follows:
(b) An original suit requesting possessory conservatorship
may not be filed by a grandparent or other person. However, the
court, subject to Subsection (b-1), may grant a grandparent or
other person deemed by the court to have had substantial past
contact with the child leave to intervene in a pending suit filed by
a person authorized to do so under this chapter [subchapter] if
there is satisfactory proof to the court that appointment of a
parent as a sole managing conservator or both parents as joint
managing conservators would significantly impair the child's
physical health or emotional development.
(b-1) A court may not grant a foster parent of a child placed
in the foster parent's home by the Department of Family and
Protective Services leave to intervene in a pending suit involving
the child, as authorized by Subsection (b), unless the child has
been in the foster parent's home for at least 12 months.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act to Section
102.004, Family Code, apply only to a motion to intervene pending on
or filed on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.