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                                  * * * * *