By Shapiro                                      S.B. No. 1476

      75R9179 CAG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to exempting certain children in foster or residential

 1-3     care from the payment of tuition and fees at state-supported

 1-4     institutions of higher education.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 54.211, Education Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 54.211.  EXEMPTIONS FOR STUDENTS IN FOSTER OR OTHER

 1-9     RESIDENTIAL CARE.  A student is exempt from the payment of tuition

1-10     and fees authorized in this chapter if the student:

1-11                 (1)  was in foster care or other residential care under

1-12     the conservatorship of the Department of Protective and Regulatory

1-13     Services on or after:

1-14                       (A)  the day preceding the student's 18th

1-15     birthday; or

1-16                       (B)  the day of the student's 14th birthday, if

1-17     the student was also eligible for adoption on or after that day;

1-18     and

1-19                 (2)  enrolls in an institution of higher education as

1-20     an undergraduate student not later than the third anniversary of

1-21     the date the student was discharged from the foster or other

1-22     residential care or the student's 21st  birthday, whichever date is

1-23     later.

1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

 2-1     for the 1997 fall semester.

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

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-7     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-8     passage, and it is so enacted.