By Greenberg H.B. No. 1195 75R5869 JSA-D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to required courses in reading instruction for elementary 1-3 teacher certification. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Section 21.050, Education Code, is amended by 1-6 adding Subsection (c) to read as follows: 1-7 (c) The board shall require not less than nine of the 1-8 semester credit hours required for a teaching certificate for 1-9 teaching at the elementary level under Subsection (b) to be in 1-10 courses that include substantial training in research-based reading 1-11 instruction using a balanced and integrated approach to reading 1-12 instruction to assist students to master language sound structures 1-13 and contextual reading comprehension skills. 1-14 SECTION 2. Section 21.050(c), Education Code, as added by 1-15 this Act, does not apply to a person who begins a teacher 1-16 certificate program before the 1997 fall semester. 1-17 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the 1-18 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-19 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-20 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-21 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-22 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-23 passage, and it is so enacted.