1-1 By: Bivins S.B. No. 523
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 February 27, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas
1-5 9, Nays 0; February 27, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to hearings provided to students expelled from public
1-9 schools.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Subsection (f), Section 37.009, Education Code,
1-12 is amended to read as follows:
1-13 (f) Before a student may be expelled under Section 37.007,
1-14 the board or the board's designee must provide the student a
1-15 hearing at which the student is afforded appropriate due process as
1-16 required by the federal constitution and which the student's parent
1-17 or guardian is invited, in writing, to attend. At the hearing, the
1-18 student is entitled to [must] be represented by the student's
1-19 parent or guardian or another adult who can provide guidance to the
1-20 student and who is not an employee of the school district. If the
1-21 school district makes a good-faith effort to inform the student and
1-22 the student's parent or guardian of the time and place of the
1-23 hearing, the district may hold the hearing regardless of whether
1-24 the student, the student's parent or guardian, or another adult
1-25 representing the student attends. If the decision to expel a
1-26 student is made by the board's designee, the decision may be
1-27 appealed to the board. The decision of the board may be appealed
1-28 by trial de novo to a district court of the county in which the
1-29 school district's central administrative office is located.
1-30 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect beginning with the
1-31 1997-1998 school year.
1-32 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-33 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-34 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-35 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-36 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-37 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-38 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-39 * * * * *