Text of TX HB 3478 (2025)

89R15164 AMF-F By: Lowe H.B. No. 3478 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to the definitions of child abuse and neglect and the temporary emergency jurisdiction of a court in this state over a child at risk of receiving certain prohibited gender transitioning or gender reassignment procedures or treatments. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the Save James Act. SECTION 2. Section 152.204(a), Family Code, is amended to read as follows: (a) A court of this state has temporary emergency jurisdiction if: (1) the child is present in this state and the child has been abandoned or it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or parent of the child, is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse; or (2) the child has a parent or person acting as a parent who is present in this state and it is necessary to protect the child from receiving a treatment or procedure prohibited under Section 161.702, Health and Safety Code. SECTION 3. Section 261.001, Family Code, is amended by amending Subdivisions (1) and (4) and adding Subdivision (1-a) to read as follows: (1) "Abuse" includes the following acts or omissions by a person: (A) mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child's growth, development, or psychological functioning; (B) causing or permitting the child to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or emotional injury that results in an observable and material impairment in the child's growth, development, or psychological functioning; (C) physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child, or the genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child, including an injury that is at variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an accident or reasonable discipline by a parent, guardian, or managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child to a substantial risk of harm; (D) failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent an action by another person that results in physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child; (E) sexual conduct harmful to a child's mental, emotional, or physical welfare, including conduct that constitutes the offense of continuous sexual abuse of young child or disabled individual under Section 21.02, Penal Code, indecency with a child under Section 21.11, Penal Code, sexual assault under Section 22.011, Penal Code, or aggravated sexual assault under Section 22.021, Penal Code; (F) failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child; (G) compelling or encouraging the child to engage in sexual conduct as defined by Section 43.01, Penal Code, including compelling or encouraging the child in a manner that constitutes an offense of trafficking of persons under Section 20A.02(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code, solicitation of prostitution under Section 43.021, Penal Code, or compelling prostitution under Section 43.05(a)(2), Penal Code; (H) causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing, filming, or depicting of the child if the person knew or should have known that the resulting photograph, film, or depiction of the child is obscene as defined by Section 43.21, Penal Code, or pornographic; (I) the current use by a person of a controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code, in a manner or to the extent that the use results in physical, mental, or emotional injury to a child; (J) causing, expressly permitting, or encouraging a child to use a controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code; (K) causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a sexual performance by a child as defined by Section 43.25, Penal Code; (L) knowingly causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a child to be trafficked in a manner punishable as an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(5), (6), (7), or (8), Penal Code, or the failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent a child from being trafficked in a manner punishable as an offense under any of those sections; [or] (M) forcing or coercing a child to enter into a marriage; or (N) causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing: (i) a medical intervention intended to affirm a child's perception of the child's gender if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex, including a treatment or procedure prohibited under Section 161.702, Health and Safety Code; or (ii) a psychological or social intervention intended to affirm a child's perception of the child's gender if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex and is: (a) severe or pervasive enough to cause harm to the child's perception of the child's gender or identity; or (b) an intervention by an adult authority figure in the child's life. (1-a) "Abuse" does not include the refusal by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to affirm: (A) a child's perception of the child's gender if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex, including a refusal to use a child's preferred name or pronouns if the name or pronouns are inconsistent with the child's biological sex, regardless of whether the child's name has been legally changed; or (B) a child's expressed sexual orientation. (4) "Neglect" means an act or failure to act by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare evidencing the person's blatant disregard for the consequences of the act or failure to act that results in harm to the child or that creates an immediate danger to the child's physical health or safety and: (A) includes: (i) the leaving of a child in a situation where the child would be exposed to an immediate danger of physical or mental harm, without arranging for necessary care for the child, and the demonstration of an intent not to return by a parent, guardian, or managing or possessory conservator of the child; (ii) the following acts or omissions by a person: (a) placing a child in or failing to remove a child from a situation that a reasonable person would realize requires judgment or actions beyond the child's level of maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities and that results in bodily injury or an immediate danger of harm to the child; (b) failing to seek, obtain, or follow through with medical care for a child, with the failure resulting in or presenting an immediate danger of death, disfigurement, or bodily injury or with the failure resulting in an observable and material impairment to the growth, development, or functioning of the child; (c) the failure to provide a child with food, clothing, or shelter necessary to sustain the life or health of the child, excluding failure caused primarily by financial inability unless relief services had been offered and refused; (d) placing a child in or failing to remove the child from a situation in which the child would be exposed to an immediate danger of sexual conduct harmful to the child; or (e) placing a child in or failing to remove the child from a situation in which the child would be exposed to acts or omissions that constitute abuse under Subdivision (1)(E), (F), (G), (H), or (K) committed against another child; (iii) the failure by the person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to return to the child's home without arranging for the necessary care for the child after the child has been absent from the home for any reason, including having been in residential placement or having run away; or (iv) a negligent act or omission by an employee, volunteer, or other individual working under the auspices of a facility or program, including failure to comply with an individual treatment plan, plan of care, or individualized service plan, that causes or may cause substantial emotional harm or physical injury to, or the death of, a child served by the facility or program as further described by rule or policy; and (B) does not include: (i) the refusal by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to remain in or return to the child's home resulting in the placement of the child in the conservatorship of the department if: (a) the child has a severe emotional disturbance; (b) the person's refusal is based solely on the person's inability to obtain mental health services necessary to protect the safety and well-being of the child; and (c) the person has exhausted all reasonable means available to the person to obtain the mental health services described by Sub-subparagraph (b); (ii) allowing the child to engage in independent activities that are appropriate and typical for the child's level of maturity, physical condition, developmental abilities, or culture; [or] (iii) a decision by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to: (a) obtain an opinion from more than one medical provider relating to the child's medical care; (b) transfer the child's medical care to a new medical provider; or (c) transfer the child to another health care facility; or (iv) the refusal by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to affirm: (a) a child's perception of the child's gender if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex, including a refusal to use a child's preferred name or pronouns if the name or pronouns are inconsistent with the child's biological sex, regardless of whether the child's name has been legally changed; or (b) a child's expressed sexual orientation. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.