By: West S.B. No. 534
(Dukes)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to requiring permanency planning meetings for certain
children in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and
Protective Services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 263, Family Code, is
amended to read as follows:
CHAPTER 263. REVIEW OF PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN UNDER CARE OF
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE [AND REGULATORY] SERVICES
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 263, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 263.009 to read as follows:
Sec. 263.009. PERMANENCY PLANNING MEETINGS. (a) The
department shall hold a permanency planning meeting for each child
for whom the department is appointed temporary managing
conservator:
(1) not later than the 45th day after the date the
department is named temporary managing conservator of the child;
and
(2) not later than five months after the date the
department is named temporary managing conservator of the child.
(b) At the five-month permanency planning meeting described
by Subsection (a)(2), the department shall:
(1) identify any barriers to achieving a timely
permanent placement for the child; and
(2) develop strategies and determine actions that will
increase the probability of achieving a timely permanent placement
for the child.
(c) The five-month permanency planning meeting described by
Subsection (a)(2) and any subsequent permanency planning meeting
may be conducted as a multidisciplinary permanency planning meeting
if the department determines that a multidisciplinary permanency
planning meeting will assist the department in placing the child
with an adult caregiver who will permanently assume legal
responsibility for the child and facilitate the child's exit from
the conservatorship of the department.
(d) Except as provided by Subsection (e), the department
shall make reasonable efforts to include the following persons in
each multidisciplinary permanency planning meeting and notify
those persons of the meeting:
(1) the child, if the child is at least seven years of
age;
(2) the child's attorney ad litem;
(3) the child's guardian ad litem;
(4) any court-appointed volunteer advocate for the
child;
(5) the child's substitute care provider and any
child-placing agency involved with the child;
(6) each of the child's parents and the parents'
attorney, unless:
(A) the parent cannot be located;
(B) the parent has executed an affidavit of
relinquishment of parental rights; or
(C) the parent's parental rights have been
terminated;
(7) each attorney ad litem appointed to represent the
interests of a parent in the suit; and
(8) any other person the department determines should
attend the permanency planning meeting.
(e) The department is not required to include a person
listed in Subsection (d) in a multidisciplinary permanency planning
meeting or to notify that person of a meeting if the department or
its authorized designee determines that the person's presence at
the meeting may have a detrimental effect on:
(1) the safety or well-being of another participant in
the meeting; or
(2) the success of the meeting because a parent or the
child has expressed an unwillingness to include that person in the
meeting.
(f) The department shall give the notice required by
Subsection (d) by e-mail if possible.
SECTION 3. Section 263.009, Family Code, as added by this
Act, applies only to a child placed in the temporary managing
conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services
on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.