By Bivins                                        S.B. No. 523

      75R5132 KKA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to hearings provided to students expelled from public

 1-3     schools.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 37.009(f), Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (f)  Before a student may be expelled under Section 37.007,

 1-8     the board or the board's designee must provide the student a

 1-9     hearing at which the student is afforded appropriate due process as

1-10     required by the federal constitution and which the student's parent

1-11     or guardian is invited, in writing, to attend.  At the hearing, the

1-12     student is entitled to [must] be represented by the student's

1-13     parent or guardian or another adult who can provide guidance to the

1-14     student and who is not an employee of the school district.  If the

1-15     school district makes a good-faith effort to inform the student and

1-16     the student's parent or guardian of the time and place of the

1-17     hearing, the district may hold the hearing regardless of whether

1-18     the student, the student's parent or guardian, or another adult

1-19     representing the student attends.  If the decision to expel a

1-20     student is made by the board's designee, the decision may be

1-21     appealed to the board.  The decision of the board may be appealed

1-22     by trial de novo to a district court of the county in which the

1-23     school district's central administrative office is located.

1-24           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.