AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) realized victory on behalf of Texas parents on June 15, 2017, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 999 into law.
Introduced by Sen. Royce West during the 2017 Texas Legislative session, SB 999 enacts the following changes:
- Siblings involved in the same CPS incident are now processed by the same court or judge.
- Courts may now postpone a show cause hearing—for good cause shown—for up to one week when requested by the parent or the parent’s attorney.
- Courts are now required to find actual risk of harm to a child in non-emergency circumstances before ordering the child removed from the home.
“The lack of adequate protections for parents involved with CPS has been a growing cause of concern for THSC due to the significant burden it has placed on many of our members,” says Tim Lambert, President of THSC. “SB 999 provides parents with much-needed relief.”
What prompted THSC’s interest in parental rights and CPS issues?
For decades, THSC has defended the right of parents to educate and raise their children as they see fit in their home. This right is rooted in the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision Troxel v. Granville, which states: “The liberty interest at issue in this case—the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children—is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”
Signing this bill into law was important to THSC because the organization regularly defends homeschool families in CPS cases. Since 2014, THSC has successfully defended 31 such cases.
For more information about THSC and a full list of CPS reforms that passed during the legislative session, please visit THSC.org.
For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2017
Contact: Joshua Newman
Phone: (469) 795-1649
AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) realized victory on behalf of Texas parents on June 15, 2017, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 999 into law.
Introduced by Sen. Royce West during the 2017 Texas Legislative session, SB 999 enacts the following changes:
- Siblings involved in the same CPS incident are now processed by the same court or judge.
- Courts may now postpone a show cause hearing—for good cause shown—for up to one week when requested by the parent or the parent’s attorney.
- Courts are now required to find actual risk of harm to a child in non-emergency circumstances before ordering the child removed from the home.
“The lack of adequate protections for parents involved with CPS has been a growing cause of concern for THSC due to the significant burden it has placed on many of our members,” says Tim Lambert, President of THSC. “SB 999 provides parents with much-needed relief.”
What prompted THSC’s interest in parental rights and CPS issues?
For decades, THSC has defended the right of parents to educate and raise their children as they see fit in their home. This right is rooted in the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision Troxel v. Granville, which states: “The liberty interest at issue in this case—the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children—is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”
Signing this bill into law was important to THSC because the organization regularly defends homeschool families in CPS cases. Since 2014, THSC has successfully defended 31 such cases.
For more information about THSC and a full list of CPS reforms that passed during the legislative session, please visit THSC.org.
For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2017
Contact: Joshua Newman
Phone: (469) 795-1649
