By:  Bivins                                   S.B. No. 523

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to hearings provided to students expelled from public

 1-2     schools.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (f), Section 37.009, Education Code,

 1-5     is amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (f)  Before a student may be expelled under Section 37.007,

 1-7     the board or the board's designee must provide the student a

 1-8     hearing at which the student is afforded appropriate due process as

 1-9     required by the federal constitution and which the student's parent

1-10     or guardian is invited, in writing, to attend.  At the hearing, the

1-11     student is entitled to [must] be represented by the student's

1-12     parent or guardian or another adult who can provide guidance to the

1-13     student and who is not an employee of the school district.  If the

1-14     school district makes a good-faith effort to inform the student and

1-15     the student's parent or guardian of the time and place of the

1-16     hearing, the district may hold the hearing regardless of whether

1-17     the student, the student's parent or guardian, or another adult

1-18     representing the student attends. If the decision to expel a

1-19     student is made by the board's designee, the decision may be

1-20     appealed to the board.  The decision of the board may be appealed

1-21     by trial de novo to a district court of the county in which the

1-22     school district's central administrative office is located.

1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect beginning with the

 2-1     1997-1998 school year.

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

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-7     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-8     passage, and it is so enacted.