By Wilson                                              H.B. No. 153

      75R1939 KKA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the suspension of a student from participation in

 1-3     extracurricular activities.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 33.081(c) and (d), Education Code, are

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  A student who is enrolled in a school district in this

 1-8     state or who participates in a University Interscholastic League

 1-9     competition shall be suspended from participation in any

1-10     extracurricular activity sponsored or sanctioned by the school

1-11     district or the University Interscholastic League after a grade

1-12     evaluation period in which the student's grade average in academic

1-13     classes, excluding identified honors or advanced classes, is

1-14     [student received a grade] lower than the equivalent of 70 on a

1-15     scale of 100 [in any academic class other than an identified honors

1-16     or advanced class].  A suspension continues for at least three

1-17     weeks and is not removed during the school year until the

1-18     conditions of Subsection (d) are met.  A suspension does not last

1-19     beyond the end of a school year.  For purposes of this subsection,

1-20     "grade evaluation period" means:

1-21                 (1)  the six-week grade reporting period; or

1-22                 (2)  the first six weeks of a semester and each grade

1-23     reporting period thereafter, in the case of a district with a grade

1-24     reporting period longer than six weeks.

 2-1           (d)  Until the suspension is removed under this subsection or

 2-2     the school year ends, a school district shall review the grades of

 2-3     a student suspended under Subsection (c) at the end of each

 2-4     three-week period following the date on which the suspension began.

 2-5     At the time of a review, the suspension is removed if the student's

 2-6     grade average in academic classes, excluding identified honors or

 2-7     advanced classes [in each class, other than an identified honors or

 2-8     advanced class], is equal to or greater than the equivalent of 70

 2-9     on a scale of 100.  The principal and each of the student's

2-10     teachers shall make the determination concerning the student's

2-11     grades.

2-12           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

2-13     school year.

2-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-20     passage, and it is so enacted.