By Wise                                                H.B. No. 360
         76R2293 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a school district program to notify parents of a
 1-3     student's absence.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 33, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 33.0521 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 33.0521.  NOTIFICATION CONCERNING ABSENT CHILD.  A
 1-8     missing child prevention and identification program may include a
 1-9     procedure adopted by the board of trustees under which school
1-10     personnel are required to notify the parent or legal custodian of a
1-11     child if the child is not at school for all or part of a school
1-12     day.
1-13           SECTION 2.  Section 33.056, Education Code, is amended to
1-14     read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 33.056.  LIABILITY FOR NONPERFORMANCE.  (a)  A person is
1-16     not liable in any suit for damages for negligent performance or
1-17     nonperformance of any requirement of this subchapter.
1-18           (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), in a school district in
1-19     which the board of trustees has adopted a notification procedure
1-20     under Section 33.0521, a school employee responsible for providing
1-21     notice of an absent child is liable in any suit for damages for
1-22     failure to give the notice only if the employee fails to make a
1-23     reasonable effort to contact the child's parent or legal custodian.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.