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If you had a forensic exam but did not report to law enforcement, Texas requires the kit to be preserved until the earlier of the fifth anniversary of the date the evidence was collected, or the date you give written consent to release it. After five years it can be destroyed only if notice of the planned destruction is entered into the statewide electronic tracking system and no objection is received from you before the 91st day after that notice.
That is a real protection, and it is one almost no survivor is told about at the hospital, when nothing said is likely to be retained anyway.
It also contains an assumption worth naming. The notice goes into a tracking system. Whether it reaches you depends on your being registered in that system and reachable through it, which is why the practical advice below is about staying findable.
Article 56A.306(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires an entity that receives evidence collected during a forensic medical examination under that subchapter to preserve the evidence until the earlier of the fifth anniversary of the date on which the evidence was collected, or the date on which written consent to release the evidence is obtained under Section 420.0735 of the Government Code.
Article 56A.306(c) then limits destruction. The entity may destroy the evidence on the expiration of its duty to preserve only if notice of the planned destruction is entered into the statewide electronic tracking system and an objection is not received from the victim before the 91st day after that date. That notice-and-objection procedure, in its current form, applies to evidence collected on or after 1 September 2019.
Article 56A.306(a) also requires the Department of Public Safety to develop procedures for transfer, preservation and testing of evidence from an exam for an assault that was not reported, including for notification of the survivor through the tracking system before a planned destruction, and for DNA testing performed under the limited consent described below.
Section 420.034 of the Government Code requires the Department of Public Safety to develop and implement a statewide electronic tracking system for evidence collected in relation to a sexual assault or other sex offense, covering the evidence collection kit and other items collected during the forensic medical examination and submitted for laboratory analysis, regardless of whether the evidence was collected in connection with a reported offense.
The system is the mechanism by which the 91 day notice is supposed to reach a survivor. It is worth registering for and worth checking.
This is the provision that matters most and is least known. Section 420.0736 allows a survivor, or another person authorized to consent to release under Section 420.0735, to give limited consent: authorizing DNA testing by the department on the biological evidence in the kit without reporting the offense to a law enforcement agency.
The date the evidence was collected decides whether this is available. Section 420.0736 took effect on 1 September 2025, but the Act that created it applies it only to biological evidence collected on or after 1 December 2025. A kit collected before that date is governed by the earlier law. If the kit is eligible, the decision does not have to be made at the hospital. It can be made later, for as long as the kit is still preserved, which for an unreported exam is the five year period described above.
The statute states its own purpose, which is to encourage the reporting of sexual assaults or other sex offenses that would otherwise remain unreported.
It also requires the department to adopt a consent form containing this statement, which is quoted here exactly as the statute writes it, capital letters and all:
“IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REPORT AN OFFENSE TO A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN FORENSIC DNA TESTING OF BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE COLLECTED DURING YOUR FORENSIC MEDICAL EXAMINATION. HOWEVER, IF YOU AUTHORIZE FORENSIC DNA TESTING OF THE BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE COLLECTED DURING YOUR EXAMINATION WITHOUT REPORTING THE OFFENSE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, ANY RESULTS OF THE FORENSIC DNA TESTING WILL NOT BE COMPARED TO DNA PROFILES MAINTAINED IN DNA DATABASES AND WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO USE IN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OR TRIAL.”
Read the trade carefully. Limited consent gets the biological evidence tested without involving police. It does not put the result through the databases and it does not make the result usable in a criminal case. A survivor choosing this route should know both halves of that.
Section 420.0735 requires written consent for release of evidence in a kit, signed by the survivor if the survivor is 14 or older; by a parent, guardian or an employee of the Department of Family and Protective Services if the survivor is younger than 14; or by the personal representative if the survivor is deceased.
A civil claim against a hotel, an apartment complex, a business or an institution does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction. So the decision not to report does not close the courthouse door.
What a civil claim does need is evidence, and most of the evidence is not yours. It is in the records of the business or building where it happened, and those records are on an automatic timer. See what evidence actually matters, and what disappears.
What the kit does is answer the identity question when it is contested, and identity is contested more often in a civil case than survivors expect. It is also, sometimes, the only physical corroboration that exists years later.
And the civil deadlines are not the same as the preservation period. A negligence claim against a property owner is governed by the two year period in Section 16.003(a). The five year kit clock can still be running long after the claim that would have been worth the most has expired. Do not treat the kit’s deadline as the case’s deadline.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Stay findable. The 91 day objection right depends on notice reaching you. If your phone number, address or email changes, the tracking system registration is the thing to update. That single step is the difference between a real right and one that expires quietly.
Write down where the exam happened. The facility, the date, and the kit or tracking number if you were given one. Five years is long enough to forget, and it is the information anyone would need to find the kit later.
An advocate can do this with you. Communications with a rape crisis advocate are confidential under Section 420.071, and an advocate can help navigate the tracking system without any lawyer being involved at all.
The first conversation is free, it is confidential, and it does not commit anyone to anything.
You can ask us how the kit process works without giving your name and without deciding whether to report or to file anything. That is a reasonable question to want answered by someone who is not a police officer.
If a five year notice has reached you and you are unsure what to do, the objection is time-sensitive and the answer is usually short.
If you are an advocate, a SANE nurse or a counselor asking on someone’s behalf, you are welcome to call with a general question. We will not ask you for her name.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Call 713-521-0059.
Until the earlier of the fifth anniversary of the date the evidence was collected, or the date written consent to release it is obtained. That is Article 56A.306(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
No. Article 56A.306(c) permits destruction only if notice of the planned destruction is entered into the statewide electronic tracking system and no objection is received from the victim before the 91st day after that date.
Yes, for evidence collected on or after 1 December 2025. Section 420.0736 of the Government Code allows limited consent authorizing DNA testing without reporting the offense. The statutory warning states that results obtained this way will not be compared to DNA profiles in the databases and will not be subject to use in a criminal investigation or trial.
Under Section 420.0735, the survivor if 14 or older; a parent, guardian or Department of Family and Protective Services employee if the survivor is younger than 14; or the personal representative if the survivor is deceased.
No. A civil claim against a property owner or institution does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction. The kit matters most where identity is contested, and it can be the only physical corroboration left years later. What a civil claim does need is evidence, and most of it is in the records of the business or building where it happened, which are on an automatic timer.
No, and this is important. A negligence claim against a property owner runs on the two year period in Section 16.003(a). The kit clock can still be running long after the most valuable civil claim has expired.
