73R8930 CAS-F
          By Johnson                                            H.B. No. 2333
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to evaluating the performance of public schools.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Sections 11.272(a), (d), and (e), Education Code,
    1-5  are amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this section, a
    1-7  school <campus or> district that is rated exemplary under Section
    1-8  21.753 of this code is exempt from requirements and prohibitions
    1-9  imposed under this code, including rules adopted under this code.
   1-10  A school campus that satisfies criteria for exemplary status
   1-11  established under Section 21.7531 of this code also is exempt from
   1-12  those requirements and prohibitions.
   1-13        (d)  The State Board of Education in considering exemptions
   1-14  or waivers shall provide as much regulatory relief as is practical
   1-15  and reasonable to campuses or districts that are considered high
   1-16  performing<, beginning in the 1990-1991 school year>.
   1-17        (e)  The commissioner may exempt a <an exemplary> school
   1-18  campus in an exemplary district from elementary class size limits
   1-19  under this section if the school campus submits to the commissioner
   1-20  a written plan showing steps that will be taken to ensure that the
   1-21  exemption from the class size limits will not be harmful to the
   1-22  academic achievement of the students on the school campus.  The
   1-23  commissioner shall review achievement levels annually.  The
   1-24  exemption remains in effect until the commissioner determines that
    2-1  achievement levels of the campus have declined.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  Sections 21.753(c) and (d), Education Code, are
    2-3  amended to read as follows:
    2-4        (c)  The Central Education Agency shall rate each campus in a
    2-5  district on the basis of the campus's performance on the indicators
    2-6  adopted under Section 21.7531 of this code <using the rating
    2-7  categories provided for districts under Subsection (a) of this
    2-8  section>.
    2-9        (d)  The accreditation rating of a school district <or
   2-10  campus> under this section may not be lowered solely on the basis
   2-11  of size.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  This Act applies beginning with the 1993-1994
   2-13  school year.
   2-14        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-20  passage, and it is so enacted.