H.B. No. 1019
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the age at which persons are required or permitted to
    1-3  attend public school.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 21.032(a), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  Unless specifically exempted by Section 21.033 of this
    1-8  code or under other laws or unless a child <is at least 17 years of
    1-9  age and> has graduated from high school or has been issued a high
   1-10  school equivalency certificate, every child in the state who is as
   1-11  much as six years of age, or who is less than seven years of age
   1-12  and has previously been enrolled in first grade, and who has not
   1-13  completed the academic year in which his 17th birthday occurred
   1-14  shall be required to attend the public schools in the district of
   1-15  his residence or in some other district to which he may be
   1-16  transferred as provided or authorized by law a minimum of 170 days
   1-17  of the regular school term of the district in which the child
   1-18  resides or to which he has been transferred.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
   1-20  amended by adding Sections 21.0321 and 21.0322 to read as follows:
   1-21        Sec. 21.0321.  OPTION TO ATTEND FIRST GRADE.  A child who
   1-22  will attain the age of six years after September 1 but before
   1-23  January 1 of a regular school year may, upon approval of the board
   1-24  of trustees, be enrolled in the first grade for that school year on
    2-1  the written request of the child's parent or person standing in
    2-2  parental relation to the child to the board of trustees of the
    2-3  school district in which the child is enrolled.
    2-4        Sec. 21.0322.  OPTION TO ATTEND KINDERGARTEN.  A child who
    2-5  will attain the age of five years after September 1 but before
    2-6  January 1 of a regular school year may, upon approval of the board
    2-7  of trustees, be enrolled in kindergarten for that school year on
    2-8  the written request of the child's parent or person standing in
    2-9  parental relation to the child to the board of trustees of the
   2-10  school district in which the child is enrolled.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.