By Garcia H.B. No. 1388
75R5112 CAS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to school uniforms for public school students.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subchapter Z, Chapter 25, Education Code, is
1-5 amended by adding Section 25.902 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 25.902. SCHOOL UNIFORMS. (a) Unless otherwise
1-7 authorized under Subsection (b), each student in kindergarten
1-8 through grade 12 shall wear a school uniform to class.
1-9 (b) The students of a school district are exempt from the
1-10 school uniform requirement if the board of trustees of the district
1-11 by resolution provides that students in the district are not
1-12 required to wear school uniforms. Before adopting the resolution,
1-13 the board must solicit and consider comments from district parents
1-14 and hold one or more public hearings on the issue of school
1-15 uniforms.
1-16 (c) The commissioner shall adopt rules as necessary to
1-17 implement the school uniform requirement under this section.
1-18 SECTION 2. Section 11.158(c), Education Code, is amended to
1-19 read as follows:
1-20 (c) Students may be required to furnish personal or
1-21 consumable items, including pencils, paper, pens, erasers, and
1-22 notebooks. Students may be required to furnish[, and] school
1-23 uniforms to the extent authorized by the commissioner in rules
1-24 adopted under Section 25.902[, except that students who are
2-1 educationally disadvantaged may be required to furnish school
2-2 uniforms only as provided by Section 11.162].
2-3 SECTION 3. Section 11.162, Education Code, is repealed.
2-4 SECTION 4. (a) Not later than March 1, 1998, the
2-5 commissioner of education shall adopt rules to implement the school
2-6 uniform requirement for public school students as required by
2-7 Section 25.902, Education Code, as added by this Act.
2-8 (b) Except in a school district in which the board of
2-9 trustees of the school district has taken the actions authorized
2-10 under Section 25.902(b), Education Code, as added by this Act, to
2-11 exempt district students from the school uniform requirement,
2-12 students shall wear school uniforms in accordance with Section
2-13 25.902, Education Code, and rules adopted under that section
2-14 beginning with the 1998-1999 school year.
2-15 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21 passage, and it is so enacted.