By:  Shapiro, Moncrief                                S.B. No. 1476

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to exempting certain children in foster or residential

 1-2     care from the payment of tuition and fees at state-supported

 1-3     institutions of higher education.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 54.211, Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 54.211.  EXEMPTIONS FOR STUDENTS IN FOSTER OR OTHER

 1-8     RESIDENTIAL CARE.  A student is exempt from the payment of tuition

 1-9     and fees authorized in this chapter if the student:

1-10                 (1)  was in foster care or other residential care under

1-11     the conservatorship of the Department of Protective and Regulatory

1-12     Services on or after:

1-13                       (A)  the day preceding the student's 18th

1-14     birthday; or

1-15                       (B)  the day of the student's 14th birthday, if

1-16     the student was also eligible for adoption on or after that day; or

1-17                       (C)  the day the student graduated from high

1-18     school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma,

1-19     regardless of the student's age; and

1-20                 (2)  enrolls in an institution of higher education as

1-21     an undergraduate student not later than the third anniversary of

1-22     the date the student was discharged from the foster or other

1-23     residential care or the student's 21st  birthday, whichever date is

 2-1     later.

 2-2           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

 2-3     charged for the 1997 fall semester.

 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-9     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-10     passage, and it is so enacted.