By:  Gutierrez                                        H.B. No. 1621
       73R5755 ESH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a public school teacher's involvement in the removal of
    1-3  certain students from the classroom.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 21.301(l), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (l)  A teacher may remove from class a student who has been
    1-8  documented by the teacher to repeatedly interfere with the
    1-9  teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students in
   1-10  the class.  Not later than the third class day after the day on
   1-11  which the student is removed from the class, the principal shall
   1-12  schedule a hearing among the principal or the principal's designee,
   1-13  a parent or guardian of the student, the teacher, and the student.
   1-14  The principal's designee may be a committee of teachers at the
   1-15  campus.  Following the hearing, and whether or not all requested
   1-16  parties are in attendance after valid attempts to require their
   1-17  attendance, the principal shall suspend the pupil for a period
   1-18  consistent with local policy, not to exceed six school days, place
   1-19  the student in an alternative education program, or place the
   1-20  student back in the class.  If the student is removed a second time
   1-21  under this subsection within the same semester, the student may be
   1-22  returned to that class only by action of the superintendent at the
   1-23  principal's request.  If the student is removed a third or
   1-24  subsequent time under this subsection within the same semester, the
    2-1  student may be returned to that class only by action of the
    2-2  district's board of trustees at the request of the superintendent.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  Subchapter I, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
    2-4  amended by adding Section 21.3012 to read as follows:
    2-5        Sec. 21.3012.  REMOVAL OF CERTAIN STUDENTS FROM CLASSROOM.
    2-6  (a)  Without regard to whether a student is suspended under Section
    2-7  21.301 of this code or expelled under Section 21.3011 of this code,
    2-8  the board of trustees of a school district or the board's designee
    2-9  shall remove a student from a teacher's classroom if:
   2-10              (1)  the student assaults the teacher; and
   2-11              (2)  the teacher demonstrates that:
   2-12                    (A)  the teacher's ability to effectively
   2-13  communicate with the student has been irreparably harmed; or
   2-14                    (B)  the student's presence in the teacher's
   2-15  classroom will irreparably harm the teacher's ability to
   2-16  effectively communicate with other students in the class.
   2-17        (b)  A student removed from a classroom under Subsection (a)
   2-18  of this section may not be returned to the classroom without the
   2-19  teacher's consent.
   2-20        (c)  The board or the board's designee, including a committee
   2-21  of teachers at the campus, may place a student removed from a
   2-22  classroom under Subsection (a) of this section in:
   2-23              (1)  another teacher's classroom; or
   2-24              (2)  an alternative education program under Section
   2-25  21.301 of this code.
   2-26        (d)  In this section, "assault" means an act or series of
   2-27  acts that contains the elements of an offense under Section 22.01,
    3-1  Penal Code.
    3-2        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    3-3        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.