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Groups at odds over CPS clarification bill
Published June 19, 2009
A bill Child Protective Services officials say merely clarifies existing rules on court hearings really is an attack on parental rights, opponents claim.
Gov. Rick Perry has three more days to decide whether to sign Senate Bill 1440, which ensures a court, not CPS, determines when the group may enter a home, said CPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter of the agency’s Houston region. But opponent and self-described Austin grassroots activist Robert Morrow said the bill is a power grab by CPS and the court system and should be vetoed.
“It tries to institutionalize ex parte (one party) hearings with only CPS present, not the parents and not their lawyers,” Morrow said. “CPS investigations by their nature are invasive and traumatic to parents and children, and there needs to be a breaking process.”
That “break” is allowing parents and their attorneys to tell their side in front of a judge “before CPS can run roughshod over the family and their lives,” Morrow said.
If any bill is signed into law, it must be done by June 21, which this year falls on Sunday. However, if Perry does not sign the bill, it becomes law anyway, unless it is vetoed.
The measure was introduced by state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin. Calls to his office were referred to Tina Amberboy, executive director for the Supreme Court Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families.
“In simple terms, it clarifies the process for Department of Family Protective Services to obtain a court order that can aid in investigation of child abuse and neglect,” Amberboy said. “The current statute allows DFPS to obtain an order, but the statute is vague with regard to how an investigator actually goes about getting the order.”
The bill is intended to clarify the process CPS uses in court cases, Carter said.
“The short explanation is the legislation ensures the court and not CPS will determine when CPS may enter a home,” she said. “You have to go before a judge and meet three conditions.”
The conditions to be met are adverse physical or mental conditions caused by abuse or neglect; a demonstrated need for an investigation, including a lack of cooperation from parents; and evidence substantiating allegations of abuse or neglect.
The process remains confidential unless a child is removed from a parent or guardian and placed in state care, Carter said. CPS officials have not taken a public stand on the measure.
“It’s just clarification of those rules,” Carter said. “We don’t have a feel one way or another how this will go.”
CPS already has the right to remove a child from a home if danger to that child is evident, Morrow said.
“CPS has trampled many people’s rights, and the last thing parents need is to have CPS in the courts and no one else,” he said. “We’re protecting parents and children. These hearings are traumatic to parents and children.”
Morrow said the bill was railroaded through at the end of the legislative process, but it was introduced March 6, read March 17 and discussed numerous times in April and May before being sent to the governor June 3, according to the Texas Legislature Online Web site.
To get a court order to aid an investigation, a CPS investigator must submit a written statement under penalty of perjury, proponent F. Scott McCown said in a press release. It doesn’t give CPS any new authority and would allow a judge to hear from parents before making any order.
The governor has made no decisions on the measure.
“He has not taken action on that bill yet,” Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said. “He’ll reserve his position on a bill until he reads it in its final form, and it’s under the review process right now.”
John Lowman covers Brazoria County for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.
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