By Marchant                                           H.B. No. 1852
       74R6232 KKA-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to permitting public school students to attend courses in
    1-3  religious instruction during the school day.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 21.0351 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 21.0351.  EXCUSED ABSENCE FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
    1-8  (a)  A school district shall, on written request from a student's
    1-9  parent, excuse a student from attending school for not more than 36
   1-10  hours each school year for the purpose of attending a course in
   1-11  religious instruction.  A parent's request must identify the course
   1-12  the student will attend and specify the date and time of each
   1-13  proposed absence.
   1-14        (b)  A parent of a student excused under this section shall,
   1-15  after each absence, provide the school district with a written
   1-16  statement verifying that the student attended the religious
   1-17  instruction identified in the parent's request under Subsection
   1-18  (a).
   1-19        (c)  A district shall provide a student whose absence is
   1-20  excused under this section with a reasonable opportunity to make up
   1-21  school work missed during the absence.  If the student
   1-22  satisfactorily completes the school work, the absence does not
   1-23  adversely affect the student's compliance with compulsory school
   1-24  attendance requirements.
    2-1        (d)  A student whose absence is excused under this section
    2-2  shall be counted as if the student attended school during the
    2-3  absence for purposes of computing the average daily attendance of
    2-4  students in the school district.
    2-5        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1995-1996
    2-6  school year.
    2-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-13  passage, and it is so enacted.