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.