By Coleman                                      H.B. No. 1984

      75R7377 CAS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the admission of certain persons into the public

 1-3     schools of a school district.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 25.001(b), Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  The board of trustees of a school district or its

 1-8     designee shall admit into the public schools of the district free

 1-9     of tuition a person who is over five and younger than 21 years of

1-10     age on the first day of September of the school year in which

1-11     admission is sought if:

1-12                 (1)  the person and either parent of the person reside

1-13     in the school district;

1-14                 (2)  the person and the person's guardian or other

1-15     person having lawful control of the person under a court order

1-16     reside within the school district;

1-17                 (3)  the person has established a separate residence

1-18     under Subsection (d), including a residence with a grandparent,

1-19     adult sibling, or adult aunt or uncle or with another adult who has

1-20     actual care, control, and possession of the person and has written

1-21     consent for that arrangement from a person having the right to give

1-22     that consent;

1-23                 (4)  the person is homeless, as defined by 42 U.S.C.

1-24     Section 11302, regardless of the residence of the person, of either

 2-1     parent of the person, or of the person's guardian or other person

 2-2     having lawful control of the person;

 2-3                 (5)  the person is a foreign exchange student placed

 2-4     with a host family that resides in the school district by a

 2-5     nationally recognized foreign exchange program, unless the school

 2-6     district has applied for and been granted a waiver by the

 2-7     commissioner under Subsection (e); or

 2-8                 (6)  the person resides in the school district and is

 2-9     18 years of age or older or the person's disabilities of minority

2-10     have been removed.

2-11           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

2-12     school year.

2-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.