bill keeping juvenile cases past the 18th or 19th birthday

The text as introduced · 525 words

89R1780 MCF-D

By: Bowers
H.B. No. 1822

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the jurisdiction of a juvenile court over certain

persons and to the sealing and nondisclosure of certain juvenile

records.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 51.0412, Family Code, is amended to read

as follows:

Sec. 51.0412. JURISDICTION OVER INCOMPLETE PROCEEDINGS.

The court retains jurisdiction over a person, without regard to the

age of the person, who is a respondent in an adjudication

proceeding, a disposition proceeding, a proceeding to modify

disposition, a proceeding for waiver of jurisdiction and transfer

to criminal court under Section 54.02(a), or a motion for transfer

of determinate sentence probation to an appropriate district court

if:

(1) the petition or motion was filed while the

respondent was younger than 18 or 19 years of age, as applicable;

(2) the proceeding is not complete before the

respondent becomes 18 or 19 years of age, as applicable; and

(3) the court enters a finding in the proceeding that :

(A) the prosecuting attorney exercised due

diligence in an attempt to complete the proceeding before the

respondent became 18 or 19 years of age, as applicable ; or

(B) the proceeding has been delayed through no

fault of the state .

SECTION 2. Section 58.256, Family Code, is amended by

amending Subsection (d) and adding Subsection (d-1) to read as

follows:

(d) A court may not order the sealing of the records of a

person who:

(1) except as provided by Subsection (d-1), received a

determinate sentence for engaging in:

(A) delinquent conduct that violated a penal law

listed under Section 53.045; or

(B) habitual felony conduct as described by

Section 51.031;

(2) is currently required to register as a sex

offender under Chapter 62, Code of Criminal Procedure; or

(3) was committed without a determinate sentence to

the Texas Juvenile Justice Department or to a post-adjudication

secure correctional facility under former Section 54.04011, unless

the person has been discharged from the agency to which the person

was committed.

(d-1) A court may order the sealing of the records of a

person who was placed on determinate sentence probation under

Section 54.04(q) if the person:

(1) was not committed to the Texas Juvenile Justice

Department under Section 54.04(d)(3), 54.04(m), or 54.05(f) for the

conduct for which the person was placed on probation;

(2) was not transferred to an appropriate district

court under Section 54.051; and

(3) has been discharged from the sentence of

probation.

SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to

conduct violating a penal law of this state that occurs on or after

the effective date of this Act. Conduct violating a penal law of

this state that occurs before the effective date of this Act is

governed by the law in effect on the date the conduct occurred, and

the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For

purposes of this section, conduct occurred before the effective

date of this Act if any element of the conduct occurred before that

date.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.