By Montford S.B. No. 1668
74R10421 KKA-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to review by school districts of the criminal history of
1-3 applicants for employment and school bus drivers.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 21.917(a) and (h), Education Code, are
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) A school district shall obtain criminal history record
1-8 information from the Department of Public Safety, the Federal
1-9 Bureau of Investigation identification division, or both that
1-10 relates to an applicant to whom an offer of employment is being
1-11 considered by the district. A district is not required to obtain
1-12 information under this section, but may do so, if the applicant was
1-13 initially certified by the State Board of Education in the year
1-14 preceding the date of the application.
1-15 (h)(1) A school district shall also obtain criminal history
1-16 record information from the Department of Public Safety, the
1-17 Federal Bureau of Investigation identification division, or both
1-18 that relates to an employee of or an applicant to whom an offer of
1-19 employment is being considered by a public or commercial
1-20 transportation company if the company contracts with a school
1-21 district to provide transportation services and the employee or
1-22 applicant is retained to or is applying for a position to drive a
1-23 bus in which students of that district are transported, provided
1-24 that:
2-1 (A) in the case of criminal history record
2-2 information for such employees or applicants of a commercial
2-3 transportation company, the company shall submit the names of such
2-4 employees and applicants to the district together with the other
2-5 identification data required to obtain criminal history
2-6 information, including, if requested by the district, a complete
2-7 set or sets of each individual's fingerprints in the format
2-8 required by the district; if the school district obtains
2-9 information that an employee or applicant has been convicted of a
2-10 felony or an offense involving moral turpitude, the district shall
2-11 inform the company's chief personnel officer of the person's name,
2-12 and the company may not employ the person to drive a bus in which
2-13 the students are transported; and
2-14 (B) in the case of criminal history record
2-15 information for such employees or applicants of a public
2-16 transportation company, the company shall make the names of such
2-17 employees and applicants available to the district together with
2-18 the other identification data required to obtain criminal history
2-19 information, including, if requested by the district, a complete
2-20 set or sets of each individual's fingerprints in the format
2-21 required by the district; if the company obtains information that
2-22 an employee or applicant has been convicted of a felony or an
2-23 offense involving moral turpitude, the company may not employ the
2-24 person to drive a bus in which the students are transported.
2-25 (2) The company and its employees shall hold the
2-26 information in confidence for the limited purpose for which it was
2-27 provided.
3-1 SECTION 2. Notwithstanding Section 311.025, Government Code,
3-2 this Act prevails over any revision, recodification, or reenactment
3-3 of Titles 1 and 2, Education Code, by the 74th Legislature, Regular
3-4 Session, 1995, including S.B. No. 1.
3-5 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-10 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-11 passage, and it is so enacted.