By:  Truan                                             S.B. No. 813

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to improvement of career and technology education

 1-2     programs.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 29, Education Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Sections 29.1821 and 29.186 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 29.1821.  INTERAGENCY MEETINGS.  (a)  To improve

 1-7     interagency and public-private coordination concerning career and

 1-8     technology education programs and to ensure the statewide delivery

 1-9     of career and technology education programs at each appropriate

1-10     grade level, the agency shall conduct quarterly meetings that

1-11     include:

1-12                 (1)  a representative from the Texas Workforce

1-13     Commission;

1-14                 (2)  a representative from the Council on Workforce and

1-15     Economic Competitiveness;

1-16                 (3)  representatives from the Texas Higher Education

1-17     Coordinating Board;

1-18                 (4)  a representative from the Texas Department of

1-19     Commerce;

1-20                 (5)  representatives from business and industry in this

1-21     state; and

1-22                 (6)  administrators from career and technology

1-23     education programs located in different regions throughout this

 2-1     state.

 2-2           (b)  Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year,

 2-3     the agency shall submit to the legislature a written report of the

 2-4     findings and recommendations that result from the meetings held

 2-5     during the preceding biennium.

 2-6           Sec. 29.186.  PARTNERSHIPS WITH INDUSTRY.  (a)  The agency

 2-7     may adopt guidelines that a middle, junior high, or high school

 2-8     career and technology education program may use in forming a

 2-9     partnership with one or more local industries to provide work-based

2-10     learning stations for students in the school's career and

2-11     technology education program.

2-12           (b)  The agency may adopt rules to ensure that any federal or

2-13     state money a school receives for purposes of a partnership between

2-14     the school's career and technology education program and a local

2-15     industry is used only for that purpose.

2-16           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.