By:  Oakley                                            H.B. No. 601
       73R2848 CAS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to exempting certain teachers from advanced degree
    1-3  requirements imposed by school districts as a condition of
    1-4  continued employment.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 13, Education Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 13.914 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 13.914.  LIMITATION ON ADVANCED DEGREE REQUIREMENTS.  A
    1-9  school district may not require a teacher to obtain a master's or
   1-10  other postgraduate degree within a specific period as a condition
   1-11  of continued employment with the district if the teacher would be
   1-12  eligible for retirement, as defined by Section 821.001, Government
   1-13  Code, before the expiration of 10 years from the date the condition
   1-14  is imposed, assuming the teacher is continuously employed by the
   1-15  district during that period.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-22  passage, and it is so enacted.