By Tillery                                             H.B. No. 389
         76R2486 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a school district's student code of conduct.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 37.001(a), Education Code, is amended to
 1-5     read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  The board of trustees of an independent school district
 1-7     shall, with the advice of its district-level committee established
 1-8     under Section 11.251, adopt a student code of conduct for the
 1-9     district.  The student code of conduct must be posted and
1-10     prominently displayed at each school campus.  In addition to
1-11     establishing standards for student conduct, the student code of
1-12     conduct must:
1-13                 (1)  specify the circumstances, in accordance with this
1-14     subchapter, under which a student may be removed from a classroom,
1-15     campus, or alternative education program;
1-16                 (2)  specify conditions that authorize or require a
1-17     principal or other appropriate administrator to transfer a student
1-18     to an alternative education program;  [and]
1-19                 (3)  outline conditions under which a student may be
1-20     suspended as provided by Section 37.005 or expelled as provided by
1-21     Section 37.007; and
1-22                 (4)  to the extent permitted by this subchapter,
1-23     provide for taking into account that a student was acting in
1-24     self-defense, if applicable, before determining whether to remove a
 2-1     student from a classroom, campus, or alternative education program,
 2-2     transfer a student to an alternative education program, or suspend
 2-3     a student on the basis of the student's action.
 2-4           SECTION 2.  The board of trustees of each school district
 2-5     shall ensure that the district's student code of conduct complies
 2-6     with Section 37.001(a), Education Code, as amended by this Act, not
 2-7     later than the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.