By: Culberson H.B. No. 2668
73R5015 CAS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to parental access to certain assessment instruments
1-3 administered by a school district.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter O, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 21.562 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 21.562. PARENTAL ACCESS. (a) The parent of a student
1-8 to whom an assessment instrument is administered under this
1-9 subchapter is entitled to review the assessment instrument after
1-10 the test has been administered but before the test is scheduled to
1-11 be graded or, if the test will not be graded in the district,
1-12 before the test is scheduled to be sent away for grading.
1-13 (b) After reviewing an assessment instrument under
1-14 Subsection (a) of this section, if the parent finds that any
1-15 question on the assessment instrument is not performance based or
1-16 academic in nature and proves that fact to the satisfaction of the
1-17 board of trustees of the district at a hearing held for that
1-18 purpose, the parent may choose to have the student's assessment
1-19 instrument withheld from grading.
1-20 (c) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules necessary
1-21 to implement this section.
1-22 SECTION 2. Section 3(a), Chapter 424, Acts of the 63rd
1-23 Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a, Vernon's
1-24 Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
2-1 (a) All information collected, assembled, or maintained by
2-2 or for governmental bodies, except in those situations where the
2-3 governmental body does not have either a right of access to or
2-4 ownership of the information, pursuant to law or ordinance or in
2-5 connection with the transaction of official business is public
2-6 information and available to the public during normal business
2-7 hours of any governmental body, with the following exceptions only:
2-8 (1) information deemed confidential by law, either
2-9 Constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision;
2-10 (2) information in personnel files, the disclosure of
2-11 which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal
2-12 privacy, and transcripts from institutions of higher education
2-13 maintained in the personnel files of professional public school
2-14 employees; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be
2-15 construed to exempt from disclosure the degree obtained and the
2-16 curriculum on such transcripts of professional public school
2-17 employees, and further provided that all information in personnel
2-18 files of an individual employee within a governmental body is to be
2-19 made available to that individual employee or his designated
2-20 representative as is public information under this Act;
2-21 (3) information relating to litigation of a criminal
2-22 or civil nature and settlement negotiations, to which the state or
2-23 political subdivision is, or may be, a party, or to which an
2-24 officer or employee of the state or political subdivision, as a
2-25 consequence of his office or employment, is or may be a party, that
2-26 the attorney general or the respective attorneys of the various
2-27 political subdivisions has determined should be withheld from
3-1 public inspection;
3-2 (4) information which, if released, would give
3-3 advantage to competitors or bidders;
3-4 (5) information pertaining to the location of real or
3-5 personal property for public purposes prior to public announcement
3-6 of the project, and information pertaining to appraisals or
3-7 purchase price of real or personal property for public purposes
3-8 prior to the formal award of contracts therefor;
3-9 (6) drafts and working papers involved in the
3-10 preparation of proposed legislation;
3-11 (7) matters in which the duty of the Attorney General
3-12 of Texas or an attorney of a political subdivision, to his client,
3-13 pursuant to the Rules and Canons of Ethics of the State Bar of
3-14 Texas are prohibited from disclosure, or which by order of a court
3-15 are prohibited from disclosure;
3-16 (8) records of law enforcement agencies and
3-17 prosecutors that deal with the detection, investigation, and
3-18 prosecution of crime and the internal records and notations of such
3-19 law enforcement agencies and prosecutors which are maintained for
3-20 internal use in matters relating to law enforcement and
3-21 prosecution;
3-22 (9) private correspondence and communications of an
3-23 elected office holder relating to matters the disclosure of which
3-24 would constitute an invasion of privacy;
3-25 (10) trade secrets and commercial or financial
3-26 information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential
3-27 by statute or judicial decision;
4-1 (11) inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or
4-2 letters which would not be available by law to a party in
4-3 litigation with the agency;
4-4 (12) information contained in or related to
4-5 examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf
4-6 of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or
4-7 supervision of financial institutions, and/or securities, as that
4-8 term is defined in the Texas Securities Act;
4-9 (13) geological and geophysical information and data
4-10 including maps concerning wells, except information filed in
4-11 connection with an application or proceeding before any agency or
4-12 an electric log confidential under Subchapter M, Chapter 91,
4-13 Natural Resources Code;
4-14 (14) student records at educational institutions
4-15 funded wholly, or in part, by state revenue; but such records shall
4-16 be made available upon request of educational institution
4-17 personnel, the student involved, that student's parent, legal
4-18 guardian, or spouse or a person conducting a child abuse
4-19 investigation required by Section 34.05, Family Code;
4-20 (15) birth and death records maintained by the Bureau
4-21 of Vital Statistics of the Texas Department of Health, except that:
4-22 (A) a birth record is public information and
4-23 available to the public on and after the 50th anniversary of the
4-24 date on which the record is filed with the Bureau of Vital
4-25 Statistics or local registration official; and
4-26 (B) a death record is public information and
4-27 available to the public on and after the 25th anniversary of the
5-1 date on which the record is filed with the Bureau of Vital
5-2 Statistics or local registration official;
5-3 (16) the audit working papers of the State Auditor;
5-4 (17) information relating to:
5-5 (A) the home addresses or home telephone numbers
5-6 of each official or employee or each former official or employee of
5-7 a governmental body except as otherwise provided by Section 3A of
5-8 this Act, or of peace officers as defined by Article 2.12, Code of
5-9 Criminal Procedure, 1965, as amended, or by Section 51.212, Texas
5-10 Education Code; or
5-11 (B) the home addresses, home telephone numbers,
5-12 or social security numbers of employees of the Texas Department of
5-13 Criminal Justice, or the home or employment addresses or telephone
5-14 numbers or the names or social security numbers of their family
5-15 members;
5-16 (18) information contained on or derived from
5-17 triplicate prescription forms filed with the Department of Public
5-18 Safety pursuant to Section 481.075, Health and Safety Code;
5-19 (19) photographs that depict a peace officer as
5-20 defined by Article 2.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, or a security
5-21 officer commissioned under Section 51.212, Education Code, the
5-22 release of which would endanger the life or physical safety of the
5-23 officer unless:
5-24 (A) the officer is under indictment or charged
5-25 with an offense by information; or
5-26 (B) the officer is a party in a fire or police
5-27 civil service hearing or a case in arbitration; or
6-1 (C) the photograph is introduced as evidence in
6-2 a judicial proceeding;
6-3 (20) rare books and original manuscripts which were
6-4 not created or maintained in the conduct of official business of a
6-5 governmental body and which are held by any private or public
6-6 archival and manuscript repository for the purposes of historical
6-7 research;
6-8 (21) oral history interviews, personal papers,
6-9 unpublished letters, and organizational records of nongovernmental
6-10 entities, which were not created or maintained in the conduct of
6-11 official business of a governmental body and which are held by any
6-12 private or public archival and manuscript repository for the
6-13 purposes of historical research, to the extent that the archival
6-14 and manuscript repository and the donor of the interviews, papers,
6-15 letters, and records may agree to limit disclosure of the item;
6-16 (22) curriculum objectives and test items developed by
6-17 educational institutions that are funded wholly or in part by state
6-18 revenue and test items developed by licensing agencies or
6-19 governmental bodies, except as provided by Section 21.562,
6-20 Education Code; and
6-21 (23) the names of applicants for the position of chief
6-22 executive officer of institutions of higher education, except that
6-23 the governing body of the institution of higher education must give
6-24 public notice of the name or names of the finalists being
6-25 considered for the position at least 21 days prior to the meeting
6-26 at which final action or vote is to be taken on the employment of
6-27 the individual.
7-1 SECTION 3. Section 21.562, Education Code, as added by this
7-2 Act, applies beginning with the 1993-1994 school year.
7-3 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
7-4 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
7-5 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
7-6 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
7-7 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
7-8 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
7-9 passage, and it is so enacted.