(a) The Commission has exempted the following categories of forensic analysis from the accreditation requirement by administrative rule:
  (1) sexual assault examination of a person;
  (2) forensic anthropology, entomology, or botany;
  (3) environmental testing;
  (4) facial or traffic accident reconstruction;
  (5) serial number restoration;
  (6) polygraph examination;
  (7) voice stress, voiceprint, or similar voice analysis;
  (8) statement analysis;
  (9) forensic odontology for purposes of human identification or age assessment, not to include bite mark comparison related to patterned injuries;
  (10) testing and/or screening conducted for sexually transmitted diseases;
  (11) fire scene investigation, including but not limited to cause and origin determinations;
  (12) forensic photography;
  (13) non-criminal paternity testing;
  (14) non-criminal testing of human or nonhuman blood, urine, or tissue, including but not limited to workplace/employment drug testing;
  (15) the location, identification, collection, or preservation of physical evidence at a crime scene;
  (16) crime scene reconstruction;
  (17) confirmatory testing of a human specimen in a laboratory either accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) forensic drug testing program, or certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS/CMS) under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (SAMHSA/HHS) limited to analysis of urine testing for approved classes of drugs. This is for the purposes of referring, offering, or making available treatment, diversion, intervention, or monitoring conducted by or under contract with a community supervision and corrections department, the parole division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, or another governmental entity. The results of such testing are subsequently entered into evidence in an action to revise or revoke the terms of an individual's bail, bond, community supervision, or parole;
  (18) document examination, including document authentication, physical comparison, and product determination;
  (19) other evidence processing or handling that is excluded under §651.2(2) of this title (relating to Definitions); or
  (20) determination of National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) suitability limited to triaging or grouping multiple items of evidence for NIBIN entry and assessing a set of test fires for purposes of NIBIN entry as well as corresponding NIBIN entry. The suitability assessment may include test-firing, but only if no physical modification is made to the firearm other than what occurs during the act of test-firing the weapon, and subject to the condition that the test fire is for NIBIN suitability only and will not be used for comparison purposes or for determination of functionality.
(b) A request for exemption for any discipline not listed in this subsection shall be submitted in writing to the Commission.

Source Note: The provisions of this §651.7 adopted to be effective June 1, 2010, 35 TexReg 4438; transferred effective September 1, 2015, as published in the Texas Register July 31, 2015, 40 TexReg 4907; amended to be effective December 24, 2015, 40 TexReg 9305; amended to be effective May 17, 2017, 42 TexReg 2568; amended to be effective October 8, 2017, 42 TexReg 5489; amended to be effective May 8, 2018, 43 TexReg 2798; amended to be effective August 26, 2018, 43 TexReg 5390; amended to be effective December 16, 2018, 43 TexReg 7909; amended to be effective April23,2019, 44 TexReg 2056; amended to be effective July 15, 2019, 44 TexReg 3549; amended to be effective August 26, 2020, 45 TexReg 5930; amended to be effective October 24, 2021, 46 TexReg 7076; amended to be effective February 12, 2023, 48 TexReg 524; amended to be effective May 21, 2024, 49 TexReg 3582