HB2809

HB2809 requires the Department of Family and Protective Services to include the number of children who attempted suicide while in its managing conservatorship in its annual child-protection report. Managing conservatorship means the department has court-assigned legal responsibility for the child; the requirement is not a count of all suicide attempts by Texas children. The law took effect September 1, 2025. Final law

The annual report goes to the legislature and must be publicly available electronically. HB2809 moves its deadline from February 1 to December 1 each year and retains the requirement to report information for the preceding year. It adds a count of children, not a requirement to publish identifying case details or an express count of every separate attempt by the same child. Other child-protection statistics already required in the report remain. Reporting framework

The bill also expressly includes a suicide attempt in the definition of a significant change in medical condition, bringing it within the child-care notification framework without requiring the reader to infer that it fits a hospitalization or life-threatening-injury category. This matters separately from the annual public report: parents and other legally entitled participants must receive notices under the applicable event-notification rules, subject to statutory exceptions.

HB2809 itself changes the definition, not those notice deadlines. As of its effective date, the surrounding law requires reasonable efforts within 24 hours to notify a parent and the parent’s lawyer of a significant medical change, and generally requires significant-event notice to the listed participants as soon as possible, no later than 48 hours after the department learns of it. HB694, a separate 2025 law, added the parent’s lawyer and shortened the general notice period from ten days to 48 hours. Exceptions concerning parental access, agency reporting duties and missing contact information still matter. Notification statute; HB694 final text