Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 583 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Education Agency to develop, implement, and administer programs and activities to foster parental involvement in the public schools and requires the commissioner of education to try to consolidate the agency's parental involvement programs and activities to facilitate parental access and maximize agency efficiency.

            House Bill 583 requires a school district or campus waiver application to include written comments and the signature of each district and/or campus-level decision-making or planning committee chair indicating review by a majority of the members of the appropriate committee or committees.

            The act prohibits the assignment of a student who has been adjudicated on the basis of an offense involving indecency with a child, sexual assault, or aggravated sexual assault to the same classroom as the victim of that offense without the victim's parent's consent or, if the victim is 18 years old or older, the victim's consent.

            The act extends to within 300 feet of school property the area within which the commission of certain criminal offenses results in a student's removal from class and placement in an alternative education program and adds several new conditions under which removal and placement in an alternative education program are either required or permitted; it also includes provisions for official review and parental appeal of such placements but prohibits a student's return to the regular classroom while the review or appeal is pending.

            House Bill 583 allows local school funds, and state funds not designated for a specific purpose, to be used for certain listed purposes and for other purposes deemed by a school district's board of trustees to be necessary in the conduct of the district's schools.

            House Bill 583 also amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require law enforcement personnel to notify the appropriate school officials of a student's arrest or referral to a juvenile court-designated official and to require a prosecuting attorney or a juvenile court-designated official to notify a school district that removes a student to an alternative education program of certain outcomes in the student's case, including the refusal to prosecute the case or a court or jury finding of not guilty and the case's dismissal. The act requires a superintendent who receives such notice, from law enforcement personnel or from a prosecuting attorney, to promptly notify all instructional and support personnel responsible for the student's supervision. The act imposes similar requirements relating to the arrest or referral of a student believed to be a private school student.