1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to exempting certain children in foster or residential

 1-3     care from the payment of tuition and fees at state-supported

 1-4     institutions of higher education.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 54.211, Education Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 54.211.  Exemptions for Students in Foster or Other

 1-9     Residential Care.  A student is exempt from the payment of tuition

1-10     and fees authorized in this chapter if the student:

1-11                 (1)  was in foster care or other residential care under

1-12     the conservatorship of the Department of Protective and Regulatory

1-13     Services on or after:

1-14                       (A)  the day preceding the student's 18th

1-15     birthday;

1-16                       (B)  the day of the student's 14th birthday, if

1-17     the student was also eligible for adoption on or after that day; or

1-18                       (C)  the day the student graduated from high

1-19     school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma; and

1-20                 (2)  enrolls in an institution of higher education as

1-21     an undergraduate student not later than:

1-22                       (A)  the third anniversary of the date the

1-23     student was discharged from the foster or other residential care,

1-24     the date the student graduated from high school, or the date the

 2-1     student received the equivalent of a high school diploma, whichever

 2-2     date is earliest; or

 2-3                       (B)  the student's 21st birthday.

 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

 2-5     for the 1997 fall semester.

 2-6           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-12     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 767 was passed by the House on May 6,

         1997, by a non-record vote; and that the House concurred in Senate

         amendments to H.B. No. 767 on May 21, 1997, by a non-record vote.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 767 was passed by the Senate, with

         amendments, on May 19, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays

         0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor