BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2350

By: Dutton

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law governs who has legal standing to file suits affecting the parent-child relationship, ensuring that only individuals with a significant connection to the child can initiate legal action. The bill author has informed the committee that by modifying the existing framework by expanding and clarifying standing requirements, particularly for relatives and individual with substantial prior contact with the child, legal processes can be streamlined while protecting children's welfare in custody, adoption, and conservatorship cases. As a result, C.S.H.B. 2350 seeks to revise and clarify the categories of individuals who may file suits regarding the parent-child relationship and to expand standing for certain relatives by extending eligibility to the fourth degree of consanguinity, while also refining the criteria for foster parents and other caregivers.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

C.S.H.B. 2350 amends the Family Code to revise certain provisions relating to standing in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship, including provisions regarding general standing to file suit, a statement to confer standing, standing specific to certain relatives and other persons, standing to request termination and adoption, and certain limitations on standing.

General Standing to File Suit

C.S.H.B. 2350 changes the provision that confers general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship on a person who has had actual care, control, and possession of the child for at least six months ending not more than 90 days preceding the date of the filing of the applicable petition. Under current law, a foster parent is excluded from the applicability of that provision. The bill further excludes from such applicability a person who is a relative or designated caregiver of a child placed by the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and changes the requisite care, control, and possession of the child during that time from actual to exclusive.

C.S.H.B. 2350 changes the provision that confers general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship on a person who is a foster parent of a child placed by DFPS in the person's home for at least 12 months ending not more than 90 days preceding the date of the filing of the applicable petition by also conferring general standing on a person who is a relative or designated caregiver of a child placed by DFPS in the person's home for that period. However, the bill establishes that such standing for the foster parent, relative, or caregiver is inapplicable if the child has been returned to the parent under state law providing for the monitored return of a child to a parent or if the child has been placed with a parent and the suit by DFPS has been dismissed under state law providing for the automatic dismissal of the suit without a court order due to the expiration of the one-year cutoff period to commence trial.

C.S.H.B. 2350 removes the provision that confers general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship on a person with whom a child and the child's guardian, managing conservator, or parent have resided for at least six months ending not more than 90 days preceding the date of the filing of the applicable petition if the child's guardian, managing conservator, or parent is deceased at the time of the filing of the petition.

C.S.H.B. 2350 changes the provision that confers general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship on a person who is a relative of the child within the third degree by consanguinity if the child's parents are deceased at the time of the filing of the applicable petition by conferring general standing instead to a relative within the fourth degree by consanguinity.

Statement to Confer Standing

C.S.H.B. 2350 establishes that a statement to confer standing is not required in a suit brought by a person who is an intended parent of a child or unborn child under a gestational agreement that complies with the requirements of applicable state law.

Standing for Certain Relatives and Other Persons

C.S.H.B. 2350 changes the provision conferring standing on a grandparent, or another relative of the child related within the third degree by consanguinity, to file, under certain conditions, an original suit requesting managing conservatorship by conferring such standing instead on such a person related within the fourth degree by consanguinity, including a grandparent. Whereas current law provides that an original suit requesting possessory conservatorship may not be filed by a grandparent or other person, the bill clarifies that a relative other than the grandparent may also not file such a suit. Under current law a court may grant a grandparent or other person deemed to have had substantial past contact with the child leave to intervene in a pending suit under specified circumstances. The bill revises and expands those circumstances to provide the following:

·a grandparent or other relative of the child within the fourth degree of consanguinity may intervene in a pending suit filed by a person authorized to do so under applicable state law 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; and

·the court may grant a person, other than a grandparent or other relative of the child within the fourth degree of consanguinity, 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 applicable state law 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, provided that:

othe court may not grant a person leave to intervene under this provision unless each parent consents to the intervention; and

oa foster parent, relative, or designated caregiver may only be granted leave to intervene under this provision if the foster parent, relative, or designated caregiver would have general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship.

Standing to Request Termination and Adoption

C.S.H.B. 2350 removes the following provisions authorizing certain persons to file an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship requesting only an adoption of a child or for termination of the parent-child relationship joined with a petition for adoption:

·the provision authorizing an adult who has had actual possession and control of the child for not less than two months during the three-month period preceding the filing of a petition to file such a suit; and

·the provision authorizing another adult whom the court determines to have had substantial past contact with the child sufficient to warrant standing to file such a suit.

Limitations on Standing

C.S.H.B. 2350 changes a provision that exempts certain specified relatives of a child from the limitations on standing applicable to those who are prohibited from filing an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship when the relationship between the child and every living parent of the child has been terminated. Whereas current law exempts from those limitations an adult sibling of the child, a grandparent of the child, an aunt who is a sister of a parent of the child, or an uncle who is a brother of a parent of the child if such a relative files an original suit or a suit for modification requesting managing conservatorship of the child by a specified deadline, the bill exempts a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity of a former parent whose parent-child relationship with the child has been terminated by court order if the relative files such a suit by that specified deadline.

C.S.H.B. 2350 applies only to a suit affecting the parent-child relationship filed on or after the bill's effective date. A suit affecting the parent-child relationship filed before that date is governed by the law in effect on the date the suit was filed, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 2350 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

Both the introduced and substitute include a provision revising the statutory provision that confers general standing to file suit in an original suit affecting the parent-child relationship on a person who has had actual care, control, and possession of the child for a specified period of time. However, the substitute changes that care, control, and possession from actual to exclusive, which the introduced did not do.