By Bivins                                        S.B. No. 518

      75R2400 ESH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the term of a suspension of a public school student

 1-3     from extracurricular activities.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 33.081(c) and (d), Education Code, are

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  A student who is enrolled in a school district in this

 1-8     state or who participates in a University Interscholastic League

 1-9     competition shall be suspended from participation in any

1-10     extracurricular activity sponsored or sanctioned by the school

1-11     district or the University Interscholastic League after a grade

1-12     evaluation period in which the student received a grade lower than

1-13     the equivalent of 70 on a scale of 100 in any academic class other

1-14     than an identified honors or advanced class.  A suspension

1-15     continues for at least three weeks and is not removed [during the

1-16     school year] until the conditions of Subsection (d) are met.  [A

1-17     suspension does not last beyond the end of a school year.]  For

1-18     purposes of this subsection, "grade evaluation period" means:

1-19                 (1)  the six-week grade reporting period; or

1-20                 (2)  the first six weeks of a semester and each grade

1-21     reporting period thereafter, in the case of a district with a grade

1-22     reporting period longer than six weeks.

1-23           (d)  Until the suspension is removed under this subsection

1-24     [or the school year ends], a school district shall review the

 2-1     grades of  a student suspended under Subsection (c) at the end of

 2-2     each three-week period following the date on which the suspension

 2-3     began.  At the time of a review, the suspension is removed if the

 2-4     student's grade in each class, other than an identified honors or

 2-5     advanced class, is equal to or greater than the equivalent of 70 on

 2-6     a scale of 100.  The principal and each of the student's teachers

 2-7     shall make the determination concerning the student's grades.

 2-8           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

 2-9     school year, except that the amendment to Section 33.081, Education

2-10     Code, made by this Act does not apply to a suspension from

2-11     extracurricular activities imposed during the 1996-1997 school

2-12     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.