88R4696 MLH-F
By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 1611
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the definitions of abuse and neglect of a child.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 71.004, Family Code, is amended to read
as follows:
Sec. 71.004. FAMILY VIOLENCE. "Family violence" means:
(1) an act by a member of a family or household against
another member of the family or household that is intended to result
in physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault or that
is a threat that reasonably places the member in fear of imminent
physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault, but does
not include defensive measures to protect oneself;
(2) abuse, as that term is defined by Sections
261.001(1)(A)(iii), (v), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x), (xi), and (xiii)
[261.001(1)(C), (E), (G), (H), (I), (J), (K), and (M)], by a member
of a family or household toward a child of the family or household;
or
(3) dating violence, as that term is defined by
Section 71.0021.
SECTION 2. Section 261.001(1), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(1) "Abuse" includes:
(A) the following acts or omissions by a person:
(i) [(A)] mental or emotional injury to a
child that results in an observable and material impairment in the
child's growth, development, or psychological functioning;
(ii) [(B)] causing or permitting the child
to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or
emotional injury that results in an observable and material
impairment in the child's growth, development, or psychological
functioning;
(iii) [(C)] physical injury that results in
substantial harm to the child, or the genuine threat of substantial
harm from physical injury to the child, including an injury that is
at variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an
accident or reasonable discipline by a parent, guardian, or
managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child
to a substantial risk of harm;
(iv) [(D)] failure to make a reasonable
effort to prevent an action by another person that results in
physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child;
(v) [(E)] sexual conduct harmful to a
child's mental, emotional, or physical welfare, including conduct
that constitutes the offense of continuous sexual abuse of young
child or disabled individual under Section 21.02, Penal Code,
indecency with a child under Section 21.11, Penal Code, sexual
assault under Section 22.011, Penal Code, or aggravated sexual
assault under Section 22.021, Penal Code;
(vi) [(F)] failure to make a reasonable
effort to prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child;
(vii) [(G)] compelling or encouraging the
child to engage in sexual conduct as defined by Section 43.01, Penal
Code, including compelling or encouraging the child in a manner
that constitutes an offense of trafficking of persons under Section
20A.02(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code, solicitation of prostitution under
Section 43.021, Penal Code, or compelling prostitution under
Section 43.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
(viii) [(H)] causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing, filming,
or depicting of the child if the person knew or should have known
that the resulting photograph, film, or depiction of the child is
obscene as defined by Section 43.21, Penal Code, or pornographic;
(ix) [(I)] the current use by a person of a
controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety
Code, in a manner or to the extent that the use results in physical,
mental, or emotional injury to a child;
(x) [(J)] causing, expressly permitting,
or encouraging a child to use a controlled substance as defined by
Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code;
(xi) [(K)] causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a sexual performance by a
child as defined by Section 43.25, Penal Code;
(xii) [(L)] knowingly causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a child to be trafficked in a
manner punishable as an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(5), (6),
(7), or (8), Penal Code, or the failure to make a reasonable effort
to prevent a child from being trafficked in a manner punishable as
an offense under any of those sections; or
(xiii) [(M)] forcing or coercing a child to
enter into a marriage; and
(B) an employee, volunteer, or other individual
working under the auspices of a school, facility, or program using a
form of restraint on a child or secluding a child in a manner that
does not comply with federal law, state law, state rules, or other
applicable regulations for the school, facility, or program.
SECTION 3. Section 261.001(4), Family Code, as amended by
Chapters 8 (H.B. 567) and 29 (H.B. 2536), Acts of the 87th
Legislature, Regular Session, 2021, is reenacted and amended to
read as follows:
(4) "Neglect" means an act or failure to act by a
person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare
evidencing the person's blatant disregard for the consequences of
the act or failure to act that results in harm to the child or that
creates an immediate danger to the child's physical health or
safety and:
(A) includes:
(i) the leaving of a child in a situation
where the child would be exposed to an immediate danger of physical
or mental harm, without arranging for necessary care for the child,
and the demonstration of an intent not to return by a parent,
guardian, or managing or possessory conservator of the child;
(ii) the following acts or omissions by a
person:
(a) placing a child in or failing to
remove a child from a situation that a reasonable person would
realize requires judgment or actions beyond the child's level of
maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities and that results
in bodily injury or an immediate danger of harm to the child;
(b) failing to seek, obtain, or follow
through with medical care for a child, with the failure resulting in
or presenting an immediate danger of death, disfigurement, or
bodily injury or with the failure resulting in an observable and
material impairment to the growth, development, or functioning of
the child;
(c) the failure to provide a child
with food, clothing, or shelter necessary to sustain the life or
health of the child, excluding failure caused primarily by
financial inability unless relief services had been offered and
refused;
(d) placing a child in or failing to
remove the child from a situation in which the child would be
exposed to an immediate danger of sexual conduct harmful to the
child; or
(e) placing a child in or failing to
remove the child from a situation in which the child would be
exposed to acts or omissions that constitute abuse under
Subdivision (1)(A)(v), (vi), (vii), (viii), or (xi) [(1)(E), (F),
(G), (H), or (K)] committed against another child;
(iii) the failure by the person responsible
for a child's care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to
return to the child's home without arranging for the necessary care
for the child after the child has been absent from the home for any
reason, including having been in residential placement or having
run away; or
(iv) a negligent act or omission by an
employee, volunteer, or other individual working under the auspices
of a school, facility, or program, including failure to comply with
an individual treatment plan, plan of care, or individualized
service plan, that causes or may cause substantial emotional harm
or physical injury to, or the death of, a child served by the
school, facility, or program as further described by rule or
policy; and
(B) does not include:
(i) the refusal by a person responsible for
a child's care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to remain in
or return to the child's home resulting in the placement of the
child in the conservatorship of the department if:
(a) the child has a severe emotional
disturbance;
(b) the person's refusal is based
solely on the person's inability to obtain mental health services
necessary to protect the safety and well-being of the child; and
(c) the person has exhausted all
reasonable means available to the person to obtain the mental
health services described by Sub-subparagraph (b); [or]
(ii) allowing the child to engage in
independent activities that are appropriate and typical for the
child's level of maturity, physical condition, developmental
abilities, or culture; or
(iii) [(ii)] a decision by a person
responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to:
(a) obtain an opinion from more than
one medical provider relating to the child's medical care;
(b) transfer the child's medical care
to a new medical provider; or
(c) transfer the child to another
health care facility.
SECTION 4. To the extent of any conflict, this Act prevails
over another Act of the 88th Legislature, Regular Session, 2023,
relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted
codes.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.