Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1314 amends the Education Code to clarify provisions relating to disciplinary measures available to school officials in response to various types of student misconduct. The bill requires the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school to adopt a code of conduct establishing standards of behavior and outlining the types of prohibited behaviors and their possible consequences as well as the due process protections for students facing expulsion. The bill requires a school district's code of conduct to specify whether self-defense is considered as a factor in a decision to suspend, remove to a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP), or expel a student; to provide guidelines for setting the duration of a removal or expulsion; and to address parental notification of a code of conduct violation that results in suspension, removal, or expulsion. The bill clarifies definitions, procedures, and exceptions in the use of physical restraint, confinement, suspension, removal, and other disciplinary measures applied to students, including students with disabilities in special education programs.

            House Bill 1314 allows, but does not require, a school official to remove a student to a DAEP for off-campus conduct otherwise requiring removal if the school official does not become aware of the conduct within a year of its occurrence. It adds to the list of serious offenses for which expulsion is mandatory and also allows expulsion if any such serious offense occurs within 300 feet of school property. The bill requires each teacher in a district's off-campus DAEP to be certified, and it requires each teacher in a DAEP of any kind to be certified by the start of the 2005-2006 school year. It also requires a district to provide in a DAEP a course required for graduation and to offer a student in a DAEP, in in-school suspension, or in any other setting, the opportunity to complete course work before the start of the next school year, which it may do through any of various methods available. The bill allows a district under certain conditions to place a transfer student in a DAEP if the student had been similarly placed by an open-enrollment charter school or an out-of-state school district from which the student transferred. The bill requires the commissioner of education to develop a process for evaluating DAEPs electronically and to develop or use an existing system and standards for evaluation review to identify districts at risk of having inaccurate DAEP data or of noncompliance with applicable DAEP requirements.

            The bill also allows a school district's board of trustees, after due process, to place a student in a DAEP if the student has received deferred prosecution for or been found guilty of certain felony offenses and the board determines that the student's presence in the regular classroom threatens the safety of others, will be detrimental to learning, or is not in other students' best interest. Such placement may be ordered regardless of when or where the misconduct occurred or whether the student has completed any court disposition requirements and may be ordered for any period deemed necessary by the board, but a student so placed is entitled to periodic review of the placement. The bill requires a placement or expulsion order to give notice of any inconsistency between the placement or expulsion period and the code of conduct guidelines, and it limits placement or expulsion to a period not to exceed one year unless, after review, the board determines that the student is a threat to others or the extended placement or expulsion is in the other students' best interest. Any decision of the board under these provisions is final and not subject to appeal.

            The bill provides for the completion of certain proceedings and the enforcement of an order against a student who transfers from a district before the order is entered and who subsequently reenrolls in the district that ordered the student's placement or expulsion if the student has not completed the terms of the order at another district; it also allows proceedings to be completed and entered at another district to which the student transfers. The bill allows a school district under certain conditions to continue the expulsion of a transfer student, or to place such student in a DAEP, if the student has been expelled by an out-of-state school district from which the student transferred.

            The bill requires the delivery of timely educational services to a student in a juvenile justice alternative education program (JJAEP) in the county in which the student resides regardless of the student's age or whether the juvenile court has jurisdiction over the student if the student is eligible for admission to a public school. A district that expels a student for conduct that allows but does not require expulsion is required to provide a certain level of funding to the county's juvenile board for a student served by a JJAEP but is not required to provide funding for a student assigned by a court to a JJAEP who has not been expelled by the district.

            The bill also clarifies notification and reporting responsibilities of various entities involved in disciplinary proceedings.