THSC works tirelessly every legislative session to advance pro-family legislation. However, equally important as passing legislation that helps families is stopping legislation that hurts families.

The THSC team has been hard at work this session doing just that…

One of the primary ways that THSC protects families in the legislature is by working with legislators to amend bills that would negatively affect families. Often, the bill author has no intention of harming families and is more than happy to work with THSC’s team to fix the problem with the bill.

For example, THSC worked with a bill author’s office to successfully amend a bill that could have unintentionally allowed school officials to monitor the academic performance of certain homeschooled students.

The bill, HB 3660, would create a juvenile justice diversion program for juveniles who commit fine-only offenses, such as traffic violations, for the first time. As part of the program, the juvenile offender and his or her parents would have to agree for the juvenile to participate in certain services.

Specifically listed in the bill as some of the services that the juvenile could be required to participate in were academic monitoring and tutoring. Additionally, the bill would allow school districts to aid law enforcement in administering the diversion program.

Therefore, the bill could have unintentionally allowed school district officials to monitor homeschooled students’ academic performance in the juvenile justice diversion program.

This effect was certainly not the bill author’s intention and existed only because of a loophole in how the bill was worded. THSC worked with the bill author’s office, which was very amenable to the amendment, to ensure that the diversion program could not be used to interfere with a homeschooling family’s educational decisions.

The unintended consequences to homeschooling families caused by loopholes in bills aren’t limited to HB 3660.

THSC worked with another bill author’s office to amend a bill that would have allowed a sole, surviving parent to have his or her parental rights limited if the parents were previously divorced.

Another bill would have required parents to give their children’s direct contact information to public school districts upon enrollment. The bill could have given school districts the power to bypass parents and investigate the education of students who were withdrawn from the school by their parents or even recruit them to re-enroll at the public school behind the parents’ backs.

THSC helped amend this bill so that schools are only required to collect the parent’s contact information upon enrollment at the school, rather than the student’s direct contact information.

Additionally, THSC worked to amend a bill that dealt with a parent’s right to access his or her child while the child is in the hospital. The bill prevented a hospital from denying either of a child’s parents access to the child while the child was in the hospital (even due to public health concerns).

However, a loophole in the bill could have allowed hospitals to deny a child’s parents the right to access the child if the parents were divorced. THSC worked with the author’s office, which was very happy to ensure that the loophole got closed and that all parents have the right to access their children in the hospital.

Every session, THSC encounters numerous bills that, although well-intentioned, often present dangerous unintended consequences for families. By working with the legislators who are carrying the bills, THSC’s team is often able to get the bill fixed without having to oppose the bill.

THSC won’t give up looking out for ways to protect families’ rights to raise and educate their children. Keeping our eyes on these bills are just a few of the ways that THSC is Keeping Texas Families Free!

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