By Shapiro                                             S.B. No. 762
       74R4894 KKA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to enrollment of foreign exchange students in public
    1-3  schools.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 21.031, Education Code, is amended by
    1-6  amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (i) to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (c)  The board of trustees of any public free school district
    1-9  of this state shall admit into the public free schools of the
   1-10  district free of tuition all persons who are either citizens of the
   1-11  United States or legally admitted aliens and who are over five and
   1-12  not over 21 years of age at the beginning of the scholastic year
   1-13  if:
   1-14              (1)  such person or either parent of the person resides
   1-15  within the school district;
   1-16              (2)  such person and his guardian or other person
   1-17  having lawful control of him under an order of a court reside
   1-18  within the school district;
   1-19              (3)  such person has established a separate residence
   1-20  under Subsection (d) of this section;
   1-21              (4)  such person is homeless, as defined by 42 U.S.C.A.
   1-22  Sec. 11302, regardless of the residence of the person, of either
   1-23  parent of the person, or of the person's guardian or other person
   1-24  having lawful control of him; or
    2-1              (5)  the person is a foreign exchange student placed
    2-2  with a host family that resides in the school district by a
    2-3  nationally recognized foreign exchange program, unless the school
    2-4  district has applied for and been granted a waiver under Subsection
    2-5  (i) of this section <by the commissioner of education due to the
    2-6  hardship this requirement would impose on the district>.
    2-7        (i)  A school district may request that the commissioner of
    2-8  education waive the requirement that the district admit a foreign
    2-9  exchange student who meets the conditions of Subsection (c)(5).
   2-10  The commissioner shall respond to a district's request not later
   2-11  than the 60th day after the date of receipt of the request.  The
   2-12  commissioner shall grant the request and issue a waiver effective
   2-13  for a three-year period if the commissioner determines that
   2-14  admission of a foreign exchange student would:
   2-15                    (A)  create a financial or staffing hardship for
   2-16  the district;
   2-17                    (B)  diminish the district's ability to provide
   2-18  high quality educational services for the district's domestic
   2-19  students; or
   2-20                    (C)  require domestic students to compete with
   2-21  foreign exchange students for educational resources.
   2-22        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1995-1996
   2-23  school year.
   2-24        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-25  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-26  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-27  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-3  passage, and it is so enacted.