AN ACT

relating to litigation regarding suits affecting the parent-child relationship and juvenile justice.
 This Act recognizes that children and their parents are healthier, happier, more productive, and more protected when children don’t have to worry about losing either parent in a divorce or separation. 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the Parental Equality Act.

This Bill affects the “FAMILY CODE, TITLE 5. THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP AND THE SUIT AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP, SUBTITLE A. GENERAL PROVISIONS, CHAPTER 101. DEFINITIONS,” “FAMILY CODE, TITLE 5. THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP AND THE SUIT AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP, SUBTITLE B. SUITS AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP, CHAPTER 151. RIGHTS AND DUTIES IN PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP,” “CHAPTER 153. CONSERVATORSHIP, POSSESSION, AND ACCESS, SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS,” CHAPTER 154. CHILD SUPPORT. SUBCHAPTER A. COURT-ORDERED CHILD SUPPORT,” and “CHAPTER 156. MODIFICATION. SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS.”

 SECTION 2. PURPOSE. The purpose of this Act is to add the presumption that both parents in a divorce or separation are fit and that equal parenting is in the best interest of the child until proven otherwise.
 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 3: FAMILY CODE, TITLE 5. THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP AND THE SUIT AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP, SUBTITLE A. GENERAL PROVISIONS, CHAPTER 101. DEFINITIONS is amended to read as follows:

 Sec. 101.014. SECTION 3. DEFINITION. Fit Parent – 

Parents who provide a minimum reasonable standard of care for their children are fit parents. Parents have a constitutional right to be presumed fit until proven unfit. Fit parents are presumed to be acting in the best interest of their child until proven to pose through their own illegal acts or omissions a direct danger to their child or to be found unfit. Fitness hearings will be conducted following the same standards used in termination hearings regardless of the marital status between the child’s parents.

(A) Minimum Reasonable Standard of Care – A parent who provides basic food, shelter, and clothing for the child. This is not to be measured against what the other parent provides for the child.

(B) Presumption of Fitness: All parents are presumed to be fit until otherwise proven not to be. Parents in conflict are not to be presumed unfit.

SECTION 4: SUBTITLE B. SUITS AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP. CHAPTER 151. RIGHTS AND DUTIES IN PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP. Sec. 151.001. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF PARENT is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 151.001 (a) A parent of a child has the following fundamental rights and duties:

(1) the right to have physical possession, to direct the CIVIC, moral and religious training, and to designate the residence of the child;

(A) the right to be presumed fit and to be presumed to be acting in the best interests of the child. A parent is fit until convicted of a crime committed directly against the child subject to the suit or found to be a direct danger to the child according to family code chapter 261.

(B) the right to maintain a full, intimate, and expressive parent-child relationship that is equal with the other parent’s right.

(c) the right to make decisions regarding the degree of life risks the child may be exposed to. This right is not to be interpreted as removing the state's general authority to set general equally applicable minimum health and safety standards.

(d) the right to communicate intimacies, knowledge, and values through speech, expression, and by example through the intimacies of daily interaction.

(e) the right to periods of possession that are equal in quality and quantity with the other parent regardless of decisions that were made during the marriage;

(2) the right and duty of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child;

(3) the right to directly support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food, shelter, medical and dental care, and education;

SECTION 5: SUBTITLE B. SUITS AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP. CHAPTER 151. RIGHTS AND DUTIES IN PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP. Sec. 151.003. LIMITATION ON STATE AGENCY ACTION is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 151.003. LIMITATION ON STATE [AGENCY] ACTION. A state agency, COURT, JUDICIAL ACTOR OR AGENT may not adopt rules or policies or take any other action that violates the fundamental [right] right and [duty] duties of a parent to direct the upbringing of the parent's child. The judicial standard of review in matters related to fundamental parent and child rights is strict scrutiny and compelling state interest. The judicial standard of evidence required to limit a fundamental parent or child right is no less than clear and convincing.

SECTION 6: CHAPTER 153. CONSERVATORSHIP, POSSESSION, AND ACCESS. SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS. Sec. 153.0010. PURPOSES – RULES OF CONSTRUCTION – ITS UNDERLYING PURPOSES ARE amended to read as follows:

Sec. 153.0010 PURPOSES – RULES OF CONSTRUCTION --ITS UNDERLYING PURPOSES ARE:

(a) to reduce litigation burden imposed on parents and children as a result of nothing more than a change in the marital status of the child’s parents;

(b) to mitigate the potential harm to parents and children caused by the process of legal dissolution of marriage and custody disputes;

(c) to protect the fundamental rights of parents and children and to limit government interference in their private lives. To protect the liberty and association interest of both parents and child to the parent-child relationship and bond with the least amount of government interference;

(d) to eliminate delays in and interference in the parent’s rights to reform their parent-child relationship and to re-structure their living arrangements to two family units following divorce or separation;

(e) to eliminate the delay and stress in children and parents by allowing them to assure the children that they will continue to have both parents in their lives immediately;

(f) to relieve children of the burdens of being placed in the middle of the conflict by the courts and to relieve parents from having incentive from the court process to involve the children; and

(g) to uphold the public policy of the state of Texas and the united states of America that children are best protected by their fit parents.

SECTION 7: SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS. Section 153.001 PUBLIC POLICY is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 153.001. PUBLIC POLICY. (a) The public policy of this state is to:

(1) assure that children will have frequent and continuing contact with parents [who have shown the ability to act in the best interest of the child], and to presume that both parents act in the best interest of the child, and to recognize that children are best protected by their fit parents;

(1-a) the least restrictive means to ensure child welfare is to presume that it is in the best interest of the child to be with both parents equally;

(2) [provide] ensure a safe, stable, and nonviolent environment for the child; and

(3) encourage parents to share in the rights and duties of raising their child after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage by protecting their right to be a parent.

(A) A court may not predicate the limitation of fundamental rights upon a disagreement between parents or upon parents living separately and will limit involvement in parental disputes to only those instances where a narrow and specific compelling state interest is shown.

(B) The court will ensure that strict scrutiny procedural protections are afforded fundamental parent and child rights; only clear and convincing evidence is sufficient to limit these rights.

(C) The court shall not require adversarial litigation to have these rights declared in a court order and protected. The rights shall be protected as existing until a proper cause of action is presented to the court as articulated under family code chapter 261 or section 153.004 and probable cause to believe a child is in clear and present danger has been shown.

(D) The court shall apply procedures from chapter 262.101 and 262.107 to any suit affecting parent child relationship when an allegation of child abuse or neglect is made by any party.

SECTION 8: SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS. Section 153.002 BEST INTEREST OF CHILD is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 153.002. BEST INTEREST.  The best interest of the child shall always be the primary consideration of the court in determining the issues of conservatorship and possession of and access to the child to the degree that such a decision does not infringe the fundamental rights of parent or child. It is to be presumed that the parents are acting in the best interest of the child. It is to be presumed that equal custody time with both parents is in the child’s best interest.

SECTION 9: SUBCHAPTER B. PARENT APPOINTED AS CONSERVATOR: IN GENERAL Sec. 153.072. WRITTEN FINDING REQUIRED TO LIMIT PARENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES shall be amended to read as follows:

Sec. 153.072. WRITTEN FINDING REQUIRED TO LIMIT PARENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES. (a)The court may limit the rights and duties of a parent appointed as a conservator where the unilateral exercise of a right would infringe the rights of the other parent if the court makes a written finding that:

(1) the limitation is in the best interest of the child; and

(2) explaining how the limitation is the least restrictive alternative for achieving a narrow compelling state interest.

(b) any limitation on fundamental rights must comply with Texas and united states constitutional protections.

SECTION 10: SUBCHAPTER F. STANDARD POSSESSION ORDER.

Sec. 153.311. MUTUAL AGREEMENT OR SPECIFIED TERMS FOR POSSESSION is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 153.311. MUTUAL AGREEMENT OR SPECIFIED TERMS FOR POSSESSION. The court shall specify in a standard possession order or an equal parenting order that the parties may have possession of the child at times mutually agreed to in advance by the parties and, in the absence of mutual agreement, shall have possession of the child under the specified terms set out in the standard possession or equal parenting plan order that provides an equal number and quality of days per year in any configuration that the parents or Court issues, and a geographic restriction for the child to be restricted to either the school district, city, or county at the minimum.

SECTION 11: CHAPTER 154. CHILD SUPPORT. SUBCHAPTER A. COURT-ORDERED CHILD SUPPORT is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 154.011. SUPPORT OF CHILD. In an equal parenting order, support of the child is presumed to be made by each parent directly. Before the Court can order a parent to pay another parent, agency, or third party, it must be proven that the parent has failed to provide the basic necessities of the child which are basic shelter, food, and clothing. Basic needs cannot be compared to what the other parent provides for the child. The child’s standard of living can be determined by each parent individually and cannot be used to impose duties on the other parent.

SECTION 12: CHAPTER 156. MODIFICATION. SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 156.004 PROCEDURE. The Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and Chapter 101, 151, and 153 for changing fundamental rights already protected in the original order and applicable to the filing of an original lawsuit apply to a suit for modification under this chapter.

SECTION 13: CHAPTER 156. MODIFICATION. SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS IS amended to read as follows:

Sec. 156.005. FRIVOLOUS FILING OF SUIT FOR MODIFICATION. If the court finds that a suit for modification is filed frivolously or is designed to harass a party, the court shall tax attorney's fees as costs against the offending party.

(A) A party is filing a frivolous or harassing suit if the party does not have a claim that overcomes the fitness presumption in Sec. 101.014. and Sec. 151.001.

SECTION 14. EFFECT OF ACT. (a) This Act prevails over any other Act of the 84^th Legislature, Regular Session, 2015, regardless of the relative dates of enactment, that purports to define or re-define the rights of each parent-child individual family unit. notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the provisions of this article apply to any statute, agency rule, or local ordinance and the implementation of such statute, agency rule, or local ordinance.

SECTION 15. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act takes effect on August 30, 2017 if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2017.

BILL SUMMARY: Bill Summary (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that applies to the re-engrossed version of this bill will be available at http://www.tdi.texas.gov/reports/leg/85bills/billsummary.html.) The bill amends provisions relating to parent-child possession time and best interests of a child in domestic relations actions in the family code. With respect to such actions, the bill: Amends the legislative declaration to emphasize that judges should protect equal parenting time so that the child may be with both parents equally unless there is evidence contrary to that presumption, regardless of divorce to assist in maintaining the parent-child bond and relationship free of unnecessary government interference and delays; SENATE SPONSORSHIP __________, HOUSE SPONSORSHIP ______________, Shading denotes HOUSE amendment. Double underlining denotes SENATE amendment. Capital letters indicate new material to be added to existing statute. Dashes through the words indicate deletions from existing statute.