By Howard H.B. No. 468
75R2029 KKA-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain parental rights concerning children attending
1-3 public schools.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Chapter 26, Education Code, is amended by adding
1-6 Sections 26.0081-26.0083 and amending Section 26.009 to read as
1-7 follows:
1-8 Sec. 26.0081. PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OR TREATMENT;
1-9 PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION TECHNIQUES. (a) Unless required under
1-10 Section 38.004, a school district may not, without the written
1-11 informed consent of the child's parent:
1-12 (1) provide psychological services to a child,
1-13 including examinations, testing, progressive relaxation techniques,
1-14 or other treatment; or
1-15 (2) use a progressive relaxation technique with a
1-16 child in a curriculum, counseling program, or other school
1-17 activity.
1-18 (b) A psychological service, including a progressive
1-19 relaxation technique, must be administered by a licensed health
1-20 care practitioner qualified to provide the service.
1-21 (c) In this section, "progressive relaxation technique"
1-22 means a technique that produces an artificially induced passive
1-23 state in which a person is more amenable and responsive to
1-24 suggestions and commands, regardless of whether the suggestions and
2-1 commands conflict with the person's conscious or unconscious
2-2 wishes. The term includes hypnosis, guided imagery, meditation, or
2-3 yoga.
2-4 Sec. 26.0082. PRIVATE FAMILY INFORMATION. (a) Except as
2-5 provided by Subsection (b), a school district may not administer an
2-6 assessment instrument, test, or survey or present any curriculum to
2-7 a student that reveals private information about the student or the
2-8 student's family in the following areas:
2-9 (1) political affiliation or political views;
2-10 (2) mental or psychological problems;
2-11 (3) sexual behavior or attitudes;
2-12 (4) illegal, antisocial, self-incriminating, or
2-13 demeaning behavior;
2-14 (5) religious beliefs;
2-15 (6) individualist or peer-dependent tendencies;
2-16 (7) attitudes or values;
2-17 (8) critical appraisals of persons with whom the
2-18 student has close family relationships;
2-19 (9) a legally recognized privilege or analogous
2-20 relationship with another person, such as a relationship with a
2-21 lawyer, minister, or physician;
2-22 (10) adaptability to change;
2-23 (11) respect for authority;
2-24 (12) income, except as required by law to determine
2-25 eligibility for participating in or receiving assistance under a
2-26 financial assistance program; or
2-27 (13) any other nonacademic area related to values.
3-1 (b) A school district may administer an assessment
3-2 instrument, test, or survey or present curriculum to a student that
3-3 reveals private information described by Subsection (a) if:
3-4 (1) the district notifies the student's parent, in
3-5 writing and not later than the fifth working day before the
3-6 administration of the assessment, test, survey, or presentation of
3-7 curriculum, that the parent may:
3-8 (A) review all materials related to the
3-9 assessment, test, survey, or curriculum, including answer keys and
3-10 manuals; and
3-11 (B) refuse to allow the student to participate
3-12 in the assessment, test, survey, or curriculum; and
3-13 (2) the district obtains the prior written consent to
3-14 the assessment, test, survey, or curriculum from the student's
3-15 parent.
3-16 (c) An assessment, test, survey, or curriculum that reveals
3-17 private information described by Subsection (a) or a student's
3-18 failure to participate in such an assessment, test, survey, or
3-19 curriculum may not be used to determine:
3-20 (1) the student's grade for a course;
3-21 (2) whether to promote the student to the next grade
3-22 level; or
3-23 (3) whether the student will graduate.
3-24 (d) In this section, "family" means persons related to each
3-25 other within the third degree by consanguinity or the second degree
3-26 by affinity, as determined under Chapter 573, Government Code.
3-27 Sec. 26.0083. NOTICE OF SUPPLEMENTAL PRESENTATIONS. (a) A
4-1 school district shall notify each parent of a student enrolled in
4-2 the district of any presentation or instructional program to be
4-3 presented to the student by a person not regularly employed by the
4-4 district. For purposes of this section, a substitute teacher is
4-5 considered to be regularly employed by the district.
4-6 (b) A school district shall send notice not later than the
4-7 fifth working day before the presentation or instructional program.
4-8 The notice must include:
4-9 (1) a description of the presentation or program; and
4-10 (2) the name and any professional affiliation of the
4-11 person making the presentation or providing the program.
4-12 Sec. 26.009. CONSENT REQUIRED FOR MAKING VIDEOTAPE OR VOICE
4-13 RECORDING OF A CHILD [CERTAIN ACTIVITIES]. (a) An employee of a
4-14 school district must obtain the written consent of a child's parent
4-15 before the employee may[:]
4-16 [(1) conduct a psychological examination, test, or
4-17 treatment, unless the examination, test, or treatment is required
4-18 under Section 38.004; or]
4-19 [(2)] make or authorize the making of a videotape of a
4-20 child or record or authorize the recording of a child's voice.
4-21 (b) An employee of a school district is not required to
4-22 obtain the consent of a child's parent before the employee may make
4-23 a videotape of a child or authorize the recording of a child's
4-24 voice if the videotape or voice recording is to be used only for:
4-25 (1) purposes of safety, including the maintenance of
4-26 order and discipline in common areas of the school or on school
4-27 buses;
5-1 (2) a purpose related to a cocurricular or
5-2 extracurricular activity; or
5-3 (3) a purpose related to regular classroom
5-4 instruction.
5-5 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998
5-6 school year.
5-7 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
5-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
5-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
5-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
5-12 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
5-13 passage, and it is so enacted.