1-1     By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 717

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 24, 1997; February 26, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;

 1-4     April 3, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 10,

 1-5     Nays 0; April 3, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to keeping school campuses open after school hours for

 1-9     recreational purposes and tutoring.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

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

1-12     amended by adding Section 11.164 to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 11.164.  ACCESS TO SCHOOL CAMPUSES.  (a)  The board of

1-14     trustees of an independent school district may adopt rules to keep

1-15     school campuses, including school libraries, open for student

1-16     recreational activities and tutoring of students after school

1-17     hours.

1-18           (b)  A professional employee or volunteer serving in a

1-19     program for which a school campus is kept open under this section

1-20     is immune from liability to the same extent as a school district's

1-21     professional employees or volunteers, as applicable.

1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

1-23     school year.

1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-25     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-26     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-27     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-28     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-29     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-30     passage, and it is so enacted.

1-31                                  * * * * *