By Greenberg                                            H.B. No. 66
         76R387 KKA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of scholarships and wage supplementation
 1-3     for professional child-care workers.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 42, Human Resources Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Section 42.025 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 42.025.  PROFESSIONAL CHILD-CARE TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS.
 1-8     (a)  The department shall develop and administer a program under
 1-9     which the department awards scholarships for professional
1-10     child-care training to eligible recipients seeking to obtain Child
1-11     Development Associate (CDA) national credentials.
1-12           (b)  Each recipient shall receive a $1,000 scholarship.  The
1-13     recipient shall apply $700 of the scholarship toward training
1-14     expenses and the remaining $300 toward obtaining CDA national
1-15     credentials.  A person may receive only one scholarship.
1-16           (c)  To be eligible to receive a scholarship under this
1-17     section, a person must:
1-18                 (1)  be employed in the child-care field;
1-19                 (2)  intend to obtain CDA  national credentials;
1-20                 (3)  agree to work in the child-care field for at least
1-21     three additional years; and
1-22                 (4)  satisfy any other requirements adopted by the
1-23     department.
1-24           (d)  In addition, the department may provide wage
 2-1     supplementation in an amount and for a period determined by the
 2-2     department to a scholarship recipient who provides care for
 2-3     children younger than four years of age.  The department may
 2-4     provide the wage supplementation for not more than 18 months after
 2-5     the date the department awards the scholarship.
 2-6           (e)  The department shall fund scholarships and any wage
 2-7     supplementation provided under this section through federal Child
 2-8     Care Development funds or other funding sources available to the
 2-9     department.  Total funding may not exceed $2,000,000 per state
2-10     biennium.
2-11           (f)  The department shall adopt rules necessary to implement
2-12     this section.  The rules must include provisions that:
2-13                 (1)  address the computation of the three-year service
2-14     requirement prescribed by this section; and
2-15                 (2)  ensure that the department may recover scholarship
2-16     money from a recipient who fails to comply with that service
2-17     requirement or any other requirement imposed by the department.
2-18           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-19           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.