By: Harris S.B. No. 1154
97S0754/1
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.
2-13 (d) Each school district shall adopt a student code of
2-14 conduct as required by this section not later than September 1,
2-15 1996. This subsection expires September 1, 1997.
2-16 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-17 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-21 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-22 passage, and it is so enacted.