By Goolsby                                              H.B. No. 28
       74R630 ESH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to an alternative graduation certificate for a student who
    1-3  has not performed satisfactorily on the secondary exit-level
    1-4  assessment instrument.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 21.940 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 21.940.  ALTERNATIVE GRADUATION CERTIFICATE.
    1-9  (a)  Notwithstanding Section 35.025, a school district shall issue
   1-10  a high school diploma to a student who has completed all
   1-11  requirements for graduation but has not performed satisfactorily on
   1-12  all sections of the secondary exit-level assessment instrument.
   1-13  The diploma shall state that it is an "alternative graduation
   1-14  certificate."
   1-15        (b)  A diploma issued under this section is the equivalent of
   1-16  a high school diploma and must be treated as a diploma for all
   1-17  purposes.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-24  passage, and it is so enacted.