By Solis H.B. No. 470
74R2891 KKA-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to preventing children from standing on a school bus that
1-3 is in motion.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 21.173, Education Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 21.173. Standees. A <(a) Except as otherwise provided
1-8 by this section, a> school district <that receives funding under
1-9 Subsection (h) of Section 16.156 of this code> may not require or
1-10 allow a child to stand on a school bus that is in motion.
1-11 <(b) A school district may apply to the commissioner of
1-12 education for permission to operate a school bus with standees. If
1-13 the commissioner finds good cause, the commissioner may order that
1-14 the district be permitted to operate the school bus with standees.>
1-15 <(c) If a district's application under Subsection (b) of
1-16 this section is not acted on within a reasonable amount of time as
1-17 determined by rule of the State Board of Education permission to
1-18 operate buses with standees is considered to have been granted
1-19 without regard to subsequent action by the commissioner.>
1-20 <(d) A school district that operates a bus with standees
1-21 under Subsection (b) or (c) of this section may not operate one or
1-22 more buses with standees for more than a total of 10 days during
1-23 any school year, and the district may not permit more than one
1-24 child per seat to stand while a bus is in motion.>
2-1 <(e) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules
2-2 necessary to carry out this section. The rules shall include
2-3 guidelines describing situations that justify operation of a bus
2-4 with standees and shall provide a mechanism that ensures that
2-5 applications under Subsection (b) of this section are acted on
2-6 without delay.>
2-7 SECTION 2. Section 3A, Chapter 280, Acts of the 53rd
2-8 Legislature, Regular Session, 1953 (Article 6701d-1, Vernon's Texas
2-9 Civil Statutes), is repealed.
2-10 SECTION 3. Section 16.156(h), Education Code, is repealed.
2-11 SECTION 4. This Act applies beginning with the 1995-1996
2-12 school year.
2-13 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-14 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-18 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-19 passage, and it is so enacted.