By:  Bivins                                            S.B. No. 138

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to mandatory public school attendance by certain expelled

 1-2     students.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 25.086, Education Code,

 1-5     is amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  A child is exempt from the requirements of compulsory

 1-7     school attendance if the child:

 1-8                 (1)  attends a private or parochial school that

 1-9     includes in its course a study of good citizenship;

1-10                 (2)  is eligible to participate in a school district's

1-11     special education program under Section 29.003 and cannot be

1-12     appropriately served by the resident district;

1-13                 (3)  has a physical or mental condition of a temporary

1-14     and remediable nature that makes the child's attendance infeasible

1-15     and holds a certificate from a qualified physician specifying the

1-16     temporary condition, indicating the treatment prescribed to remedy

1-17     the temporary condition, and covering the anticipated period of the

1-18     child's absence from school for the purpose of receiving and

1-19     recuperating from that remedial treatment;

1-20                 (4)  is expelled in accordance with the requirements of

1-21     law in a school district that does not participate in a juvenile

1-22     justice alternative education program under Section 37.011;

1-23                 (5)  is at least 17 years of age and:

 2-1                       (A)  is attending a course of instruction to

 2-2     prepare for the high school equivalency examination; or

 2-3                       (B)  has received a high school diploma or high

 2-4     school equivalency certificate;

 2-5                 (6)  is at least 16 years of age and is attending a

 2-6     course of instruction to prepare for the high school equivalency

 2-7     examination, if the child is recommended to take the course of

 2-8     instruction by a public agency that has supervision or custody of

 2-9     the child under a court order;

2-10                 (7)  is enrolled in the Texas Academy of Mathematics

2-11     and Science;

2-12                 (8)  is enrolled in the Texas Academy of Leadership in

2-13     the Humanities; or

2-14                 (9)  is specifically exempted under another law.

2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

2-16     school year.

2-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-23     passage, and it is so enacted.