By Hernandez                                    H.B. No. 1844

      75R3816 CAS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to keeping school campuses open after school hours for

 1-3     recreational purposes and tutoring.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 11, Education Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 11.164 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 11.164.  ACCESS TO SCHOOL CAMPUSES.  (a)  The board of

 1-8     trustees of an independent school district may adopt rules to keep

 1-9     school campuses, including school libraries, open for student

1-10     recreational activities and tutoring of students after school

1-11     hours.

1-12           (b)  A professional employee or volunteer serving in a

1-13     program for which a school campus is kept open under this section

1-14     is immune from liability to the same extent as a school district's

1-15     professional employees or volunteers, as applicable.

1-16           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

1-17     school year.

1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.