75R7965 JSA-F By Kamel H.B. No. 1404 Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1404: By Rabuck C.S.H.B. No. 1404 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to the authority of public institutions of higher 1-3 education to offer courses by distance learning. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Section 61.051(j), Education Code, is amended to 1-6 read as follows: 1-7 (j) No off-campus courses for credit may be offered by any 1-8 public technical institute, public community college, or public 1-9 college or university without specific prior approval of the board. 1-10 However, any of those institutions may offer a course approved by 1-11 the board to be delivered by distance learning and otherwise within 1-12 the approved curriculum of the institution to a student residing 1-13 anywhere in this state who accesses the course through a computer 1-14 or computer network. To facilitate the delivery of courses by 1-15 distance learning and to improve access to those courses, the board 1-16 shall encourage collaborative efforts to make the benefits of 1-17 computer access to educational opportunities widely available 1-18 throughout the state. The board may not prohibit a public junior 1-19 college district from offering a course for credit outside the 1-20 boundaries of the junior college district when such course has met 1-21 the requirements for approval as adopted by the board. The board 1-22 shall establish regulations for the coordination of credit 1-23 activities of adult and continuing education by public technical 1-24 institutes, public community colleges, or public colleges and 2-1 universities. 2-2 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-7 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-8 passage, and it is so enacted.