Bill Text: TX HB1611 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to eligibility for custodial officer service in the Employees Retirement System of Texas by certain juvenile correctional officers and caseworkers employed by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-13 - Filed [HB1611 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB1611-Introduced.html

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89R1444 RDR-D
By: Lujan H.B. No. 1611

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to eligibility for custodial officer service in the
Employees Retirement System of Texas by certain juvenile
correctional officers and caseworkers employed by the Texas
Juvenile Justice Department.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 811.001, Government Code, is amended by
amending Subdivision (8) and adding Subdivision (8-b) to read as
follows:
(8) "Custodial officer":
(A) means a member of the retirement system who
is employed:
(i) by the Board of Pardons and Paroles or
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a parole officer or
caseworker;
(ii) by the Texas Juvenile Justice
Department as a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker; or
(iii) [who is employed] by the correctional
institutions division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
and certified by the department as having a normal job assignment
that requires frequent or infrequent regularly planned contact
with, and [in] close proximity to, inmates or defendants of the
correctional institutions division without the protection of bars,
doors, security screens, or similar devices and includes
assignments normally involving supervision or the potential for
supervision of inmates in inmate housing areas, educational or
recreational facilities, industrial shops, kitchens, laundries,
medical areas, agricultural shops or fields, or in other areas on or
away from property of the department; and
(B) [. The term] includes a member who transfers
from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the managed health
care unit of The University of Texas Medical Branch or the Texas
Tech University Health Sciences Center pursuant to Section 9.01,
Chapter 238, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, 1993, elects at the time
of transfer to retain membership in the retirement system, and is
certified by the managed health care unit or the health sciences
center as having a normal job assignment described by Paragraph
(A)(iii) [this subdivision].
(8-b) "Juvenile correctional officer" has the meaning
assigned by Section 242.009, Human Resources Code.
SECTION 2. Section 813.506, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (b-1) and amending Subsection (c) to read as
follows:
(b-1) To be creditable as custodial officer service under
the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, service must be performed as
a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker.
(c) The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the managed
health care unit of The University of Texas Medical Branch or the
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Texas Juvenile
Justice Department, or the Board of Pardons and Paroles, as
applicable, shall determine a person's eligibility to receive
credit as a custodial officer. A determination under this
subsection [of the department, unit, or board] may not be appealed
by an employee but is subject to change by the retirement system.
SECTION 3. Section 815.505, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 815.505. CERTIFICATION OF NAMES OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND
CUSTODIAL OFFICERS. Not later than the 12th day of the month
following the month in which a person begins or ceases employment as
a law enforcement officer or custodial officer, the Public Safety
Commission, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Parks and
Wildlife Commission, the office of inspector general at the Texas
Juvenile Justice Department, the Texas Juvenile Justice
Department, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, or the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice, as applicable, shall certify to the retirement
system, in the manner prescribed by the system, the name of the
employee and such other information as the system determines is
necessary for the crediting of service and financing of benefits
under this subtitle.
SECTION 4. (a) The changes in law made by this Act apply:
(1) to a member of the Employees Retirement System of
Texas who is employed by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department as a
juvenile correctional officer or caseworker on or after the
effective date of this Act regardless of whether the member was
hired by the department before, on, or after the effective date of
this Act; and
(2) except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
section, only to service credit that is established on or after the
effective date of this Act.
(b) Service credit established by a member who is employed
by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department as a juvenile correctional
officer or caseworker and who is not subject to Chapter 820,
Government Code, that was earned by the member in the position of a
juvenile correctional officer or caseworker before the effective
date of this Act, is considered service credit established as a
custodial officer for purposes of determining the benefits payable
from the law enforcement and custodial officer supplemental
retirement fund.
(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b) of this section, a
member subject to that subsection may not receive benefits payable
from the law enforcement and custodial officer supplemental
retirement fund based on the service credit described by that
subsection if the member retires before September 1, 2027.
(d) As soon as practicable after the effective date of this
Act, the board of trustees of the Employees Retirement System of
Texas, in consultation with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department,
shall adopt rules necessary to implement the changes in law made by
this Act.
(e) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department shall:
(1) as soon as practicable after the effective date of
this Act, certify to the Employees Retirement System of Texas, in
the form and manner prescribed by the board of trustees of the
retirement system:
(A) the name of each member who is employed by the
department as a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker on the
effective date of this Act;
(B) if the member is subject to Subsection (b) of
this section, the amount of service credit established by the
member as a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker before the
effective date of this Act; and
(C) any other information the retirement system
determines is necessary to credit custodial officer service in
accordance with the changes in law made by this Act; and
(2) beginning with the first pay period that occurs
after the effective date of this Act and with respect to each member
employed by the department as a juvenile correctional officer or
caseworker, begin making deductions and collecting contributions
for the law enforcement and custodial officer supplemental
retirement fund as prescribed by Section 815.402(h) or 820.101(b),
Government Code, as applicable.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.