By Coleman                                      H.B. No. 1249

      75R4609 CAS-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to exceptions to public school class size limits.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 25.112(d), Education Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           (d)  On application of a school district, the commissioner

 1-7     may except the district from the limit in Subsection (a) if the

 1-8     commissioner finds the limit works an undue hardship on the

 1-9     district.  An exception expires at the end of the semester for

1-10     which it is granted, and the commissioner may not grant an

1-11     exception for more than one semester at a time.  If the

1-12     commissioner grants a district an exception for a grade level

1-13     during more than one semester of a school year, the commissioner

1-14     may not grant the district an exception for that grade level the

1-15     following school year unless the commissioner determines that the

1-16     district is making progress in complying with class size limits

1-17     under Subsection (a).

1-18           SECTION 2.  Section 25.112(d), Education Code, as amended by

1-19     this Act, applies to exceptions to class size limits that the

1-20     commissioner of education may grant beginning with the 1997-1998

1-21     school year based on exceptions granted during the preceding school

1-22     year.

1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

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

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.