By:  Harris                                           S.B. No. 1154

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to adopting and amending a student code of conduct in

 1-2     public schools.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 37.001, Education Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 37.001.  Student Code of Conduct.  (a)  The board of

 1-7     trustees of an independent [Each] school district shall, with the

 1-8     advice of its district-level committee established under Section

 1-9     11.251, and jointly, as appropriate, with the juvenile board of

1-10     each county in which the district is located, adopt a student code

1-11     of conduct for the district.  In addition to establishing standards

1-12     for student conduct, the student code of conduct must:

1-13                 (1)  specify the circumstances, in accordance with this

1-14     subchapter, under which a student may be removed from a classroom,

1-15     campus, or alternative education program;

1-16                 (2)  outline the responsibilities of each juvenile

1-17     board concerning the establishment and operation of a juvenile

1-18     justice alternative education program under Section 37.011;

1-19                 (3)  define the conditions on payments from the

1-20     district to each juvenile board;

1-21                 (4)  specify conditions that authorize or require a

1-22     principal or other appropriate administrator to transfer a student

1-23     to an alternative education program; and

 2-1                 (5)  outline conditions under which a student may be

 2-2     suspended as provided by Section 37.005 or expelled as provided by

 2-3     Section 37.007.

 2-4           (b)  A teacher with knowledge that a student has violated the

 2-5     student code of conduct shall file with the school principal or the

 2-6     other appropriate administrator a written report, not to exceed one

 2-7     page, documenting the violation.  The principal or the other

 2-8     appropriate administrator shall, not later than 24 hours after

 2-9     receipt of a report from a teacher, send a copy of the report to

2-10     the student's parents or guardians.

2-11           (c)  Once the student code of conduct is promulgated, any

2-12     change or amendment must be approved by the board of trustees or

2-13     the superintendent, provided that the board has authorized the

2-14     superintendent to do so.

2-15           (d)  Each school district shall adopt a student code of

2-16     conduct as required by this section not later than September 1,

2-17     1996.  This subsection expires September 1, 1997.

2-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.