By:  Armbrister                              S.B. No. 1270

         97S0733/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to staff development in public schools.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 21.451, Education Code,

 1-4     is amended to read as follows:

 1-5           (a)  The staff development provided by a school district must

 1-6     be conducted in accordance with minimum standards developed by the

 1-7     commissioner for program planning, preparation, and improvement.

 1-8     The staff development:

 1-9                 (1)  must include [technology training and] training in

1-10     technology, conflict resolution and discipline strategies, the

1-11     implementation of local policies relating to Subchapter A, Chapter

1-12     37, and strategies for instructing students with disabilities; and

1-13                 (2)  may include instruction as to what is permissible

1-14     under law, including opinions of the United States Supreme Court,

1-15     in regard to prayers in public school.

1-16           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

1-17     school year.

1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-1     passage, and it is so enacted.