By Howard H.B. No. 3273
75R4492 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain bilingual education programs in public schools.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 29.053(d), Education Code, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 (d) Each district that is required to offer bilingual
1-7 education and special language programs under this section shall
1-8 offer the following for students of limited English proficiency:
1-9 (1) [bilingual education in kindergarten through the
1-10 elementary grades;]
1-11 [(2)] bilingual education or[,] instruction in English
1-12 as a second language[, or other transitional language instruction
1-13 approved by the agency] in kindergarten [post-elementary grades]
1-14 through grade 8; and
1-15 (2) [(3)] instruction in English as a second language
1-16 in grades 9 through 12.
1-17 SECTION 2. Section 29.055(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-18 read as follows:
1-19 (a) A bilingual education program established by a school
1-20 district may [shall] be a full-time program of dual-language
1-21 instruction that provides for learning basic skills in the primary
1-22 language of the students enrolled in the program and for carefully
1-23 structured and sequenced mastery of English language skills, an
1-24 English immersion program, or another program of transitional
2-1 language instruction. A program of instruction in English as a
2-2 second language established by a school district shall be a program
2-3 of intensive instruction in English from teachers trained in
2-4 recognizing and dealing with language differences.
2-5 SECTION 3. Section 29.054, Education Code, is repealed.
2-6 SECTION 4. This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998
2-7 school year.
2-8 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14 passage, and it is so enacted.