By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 717

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to keeping school campuses open after school hours for

 1-2     recreational purposes and tutoring.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 11, Education Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 11.164 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 11.164.  ACCESS TO SCHOOL CAMPUSES.  (a)  The board of

 1-7     trustees of an independent school district may adopt rules to keep

 1-8     school campuses, including school libraries, open for recreational

 1-9     activities and tutoring after school hours.

1-10           (b)  A professional employee or volunteer serving in a

1-11     program for which a school campus is kept open under this section

1-12     is immune from liability to the same extent as a school district's

1-13     professional employees or volunteers, as applicable.

1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

1-15     school year.

1-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-22     passage, and it is so enacted.