1-1     By:  Bivins                                            S.B. No. 521

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 10, 1997; February 13, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;

 1-4     April 3, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 10,

 1-5     Nays 0; April 3, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to parental consent for certain activities in public

 1-9     schools.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 26.009, Education Code,

1-12     is amended to read as follows:

1-13           (b)  An employee of a school district is not required to

1-14     obtain the consent of a child's parent before the employee may make

1-15     a videotape of a child or authorize the recording of a child's

1-16     voice if the videotape or voice recording is to be used only for:

1-17                 (1)  purposes of safety, including the maintenance of

1-18     order and discipline in common areas of the school or on school

1-19     buses;

1-20                 (2)  a purpose related to a cocurricular or

1-21     extracurricular activity; [or]

1-22                 (3)  a purpose related to regular classroom

1-23     instruction;

1-24                 (4)  a purpose related to the evaluation of an

1-25     educator;

1-26                 (5)  media coverage of the school; or

1-27                 (6)  another purpose approved by the board of trustees.

1-28           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

1-29     school year.

1-30           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-31     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-32     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-33     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-34     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-35     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-36     passage, and it is so enacted.

1-37                                  * * * * *