By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1394
       73R8495 CAS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to criminal history information concerning an applicant
    1-3  for employment with a private elementary school; providing a
    1-4  penalty.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Title 1, Education Code, is amended by adding
    1-7  Chapter 3 to read as follows:
    1-8          CHAPTER 3.  PROVISIONS RELATING TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS
    1-9        Sec. 3.001.  CRIMINAL HISTORY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY PRIVATE
   1-10  ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  (a)  In this section, "private elementary
   1-11  school" means a school that teaches students in one or more grade
   1-12  levels, including kindergarten through the fifth grade level, and
   1-13  that receives a majority of its funding from a source other than
   1-14  public funds.
   1-15        (b)  A private elementary school shall obtain criminal
   1-16  history record information that relates to an applicant to whom an
   1-17  offer of employment is being considered by the school.  A school is
   1-18  not required to obtain information under this section, but may do
   1-19  so, if the applicant was initially certified by the State Board of
   1-20  Education in the year preceding the date of the application.
   1-21        (c)  A school may obtain information under this section from
   1-22  any law enforcement agency, including a police department or the
   1-23  Department of Public Safety, or from the institutional division of
   1-24  the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  A law enforcement agency
    2-1  that receives a request from a school for information under this
    2-2  section shall furnish the information to the school as promptly as
    2-3  possible.
    2-4        (d)  A school may use information obtained under this section
    2-5  as provided by this section.
    2-6        (e)  A school may discharge an employee if the school obtains
    2-7  information of the employee's conviction for a felony or an offense
    2-8  involving moral turpitude that the employee did not disclose to the
    2-9  school.
   2-10        (f)  A school shall notify the commissioner of education of a
   2-11  certified applicant's conviction of any felony or of a misdemeanor
   2-12  involving illegal conduct with a child disclosed in information
   2-13  obtained under this section.  The commissioner shall review each
   2-14  report received under this section and, if appropriate, shall take
   2-15  the required action to cancel or suspend the certificate of the
   2-16  employee who is the subject of the report.
   2-17        (g)  Criminal history record information obtained under this
   2-18  section is privileged information and is for the use of the school
   2-19  and the Central Education Agency only.  A person commits an offense
   2-20  if the person releases or discloses the information to any person
   2-21  other than to the subject of the report, the Central Education
   2-22  Agency, or the chief personnel officer of a public or commercial
   2-23  transportation company as provided by Subsection (i) of this
   2-24  section.  An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
   2-25        (h)  A school or an employee of the school is not
   2-26  civilly or criminally liable for making a report required under
   2-27  this section.
    3-1        (i)  A school also shall obtain criminal history record
    3-2  information that relates to an employee of or an applicant to whom
    3-3  an offer of employment is being considered by a public or
    3-4  commercial transportation company if the company contracts with the
    3-5  school to provide transportation services and the employee or
    3-6  applicant is retained to or is applying for a position to drive a
    3-7  bus in which students of that school are transported.  In the case
    3-8  of criminal history record information for an employee or applicant
    3-9  of a commercial transportation company, the company shall submit
   3-10  the name of the employee or applicant to the school together with
   3-11  the other identification data required to obtain criminal history
   3-12  information.  If the school obtains information that an employee or
   3-13  applicant has been convicted of a felony or an offense involving
   3-14  moral turpitude, the school shall inform the company's chief
   3-15  personnel officer of the person's name, and the company may not
   3-16  employ the person to drive a bus in which the students are
   3-17  transported.  In the case of criminal history record information
   3-18  for an employee or applicant of a public transportation company,
   3-19  the company shall make the name of the employee or applicant
   3-20  available to the school together with the other identification data
   3-21  required to obtain criminal history information.  If the company
   3-22  obtains information that an employee or applicant has been
   3-23  convicted of a felony or an offense involving moral turpitude, the
   3-24  company may not employ the person to drive a bus in which the
   3-25  students are transported.  A public or commercial transportation
   3-26  company and its employees shall hold information under this
   3-27  subsection in confidence for the limited purpose for which it was
    4-1  provided.
    4-2        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    4-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    4-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    4-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    4-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    4-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
    4-8              ()  Section , Health and Safety Code ();