1-1     By:  Dukes (Senate Sponsor - Bernsen)                  H.B. No. 618
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Education; May 14, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable
 1-5     Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0;
 1-6     May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 618                     By:  West
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to parental notification of the employment of an
1-11     inappropriately certified or uncertified teacher.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
1-14     amended by adding Section 21.057 to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 21.057.  PARENTAL NOTIFICATION.  (a)  A school district
1-16     that assigns an inappropriately certified or uncertified teacher to
1-17     the same classroom for more than 30 consecutive instructional days
1-18     during the same school year shall provide written notice of the
1-19     assignment to a parent or guardian of each student in that
1-20     classroom.
1-21           (b)  The superintendent of the school district shall provide
1-22     the notice required by Subsection (a) not later than the 30th
1-23     instructional day after the date of the assignment of the
1-24     inappropriately certified or uncertified teacher.
1-25           (c)  The school district shall:
1-26                 (1)  make a good-faith effort to ensure that the notice
1-27     required by this section is provided in a bilingual form to any
1-28     parent or guardian whose primary language is not English;
1-29                 (2)  retain a copy of any notice provided under this
1-30     section; and
1-31                 (3)  make information relating to teacher certification
1-32     available to the public on request.
1-33           (d)  For purposes of this section, "inappropriately certified
1-34     or uncertified teacher":
1-35                 (1)  includes:
1-36                       (A)  an individual serving on an emergency
1-37     certificate issued under Section 21.041(b)(2); or
1-38                       (B)  an individual who does not hold any
1-39     certificate or permit issued under this chapter and is not employed
1-40     as specified by Subdivision (2)(E); and
1-41                 (2)  does not include an individual:
1-42                       (A)  who is a certified teacher assigned to teach
1-43     a class or classes outside his or her area of certification, as
1-44     determined by rules proposed by the board in specifying the
1-45     certificate required for each assignment;
1-46                       (B)  serving on a certificate issued due to a
1-47     hearing impairment under Section 21.048;
1-48                       (C)  serving on a certificate issued pursuant to
1-49     enrollment in an approved alternative certification program under
1-50     Section 21.049;
1-51                       (D)  certified by another state or country and
1-52     serving on a certificate issued under Section 21.052;
1-53                       (E)  serving on a school district teaching permit
1-54     issued under Section 21.055; or
1-55                       (F)  employed under a waiver granted by the
1-56     commissioner pursuant to Section 7.056.
1-57           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect beginning with the
1-58     1999-2000 school year.
1-59           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-60     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-61     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-62     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-63     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-64     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-1     passage, and it is so enacted.
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