1-1     By:  Shapiro, Moncrief                                S.B. No. 1476

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1997; March 20, 1997, read

 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Finance; May 5, 1997,

 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0;

 1-5     May 5, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to exempting certain children in foster or residential

 1-9     care from the payment of tuition and fees at state-supported

1-10     institutions of higher education.

1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 54.211, Education Code, is amended to

1-13     read as follows:

1-14           Sec. 54.211.  EXEMPTIONS FOR STUDENTS IN FOSTER OR OTHER

1-15     RESIDENTIAL CARE.  A student is exempt from the payment of tuition

1-16     and fees authorized in this chapter if the student:

1-17                 (1)  was in foster care or other residential care under

1-18     the conservatorship of the Department of Protective and Regulatory

1-19     Services on or after:

1-20                       (A)  the day preceding the student's 18th

1-21     birthday; or

1-22                       (B)  the day of the student's 14th birthday, if

1-23     the student was also eligible for adoption on or after that day;

1-24     and

1-25                 (2)  enrolls in an institution of higher education as

1-26     an undergraduate student not later than the third anniversary of

1-27     the date the student was discharged from the foster or other

1-28     residential care or the student's 21st  birthday, whichever date is

1-29     later.

1-30           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

1-31     charged for the 1997 fall semester.

1-32           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-33     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-34     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-35     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-36     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-37     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-38     passage, and it is so enacted.

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