By Maxey                                               H.B. No. 633
         76R3375 BDH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the transfer of assistive technology devices for
 1-3     students with disabilities who leave certain school districts.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 30, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 30.0015 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 30.0015.  TRANSFER OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICES.  (a)
 1-8     In this section:
 1-9                 (1)  "Assistive technology device" means any device,
1-10     including equipment or a product system, that is used to increase,
1-11     maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a
1-12     disability.
1-13                 (2)  "Child with a disability" means a student who is
1-14     eligible to participate in a school district's special education
1-15     program under Section 29.003.
1-16                 (3)  "Transfer" means the process by which a school
1-17     district that has purchased an assistive technology device may
1-18     sell, lease, loan, or give the device for the continuing use of a
1-19     student leaving the district.
1-20           (b)  The agency shall develop and monitor guidelines for a
1-21     school district's transfer of an assistive technology device to an
1-22     entity listed in this subsection when a student using the device
1-23     ceases to attend school in the district that purchased the device
1-24     and the student's parents, or the student if the student has the
 2-1     legal capacity to enter into a contract, agrees to the transfer.
 2-2     The device may be transferred to:
 2-3                 (1)  the school district in which the student enrolls;
 2-4                 (2)  a state agency, including the Texas Rehabilitation
 2-5     Commission and the Texas Department of Mental Health and
 2-6                      Mental Retardation, that  provides services to the
 2-7     student following the student's graduation from high school; or
 2-8                 (3)  the student's parents, or the student if the
 2-9     student has the legal capacity to enter into a contract.
2-10           (c)  The guidelines developed under this section shall
2-11     include:
2-12                 (1)  a uniform transfer agreement to convey title to an
2-13     assistive technology device and applicable warranty information;
2-14                 (2)  a method for computing the fair market value of an
2-15     assistive technology device, including a reasonable allowance for
2-16     use; and
2-17                 (3)  a process to obtain written consent by the
2-18     student's parents, or the student where appropriate, to the
2-19     transfer.
2-20           (d)  A school district may permit the use of an assistive
2-21     technology device by a student while the student attends any school
2-22     in the district.
2-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-2     passage, and it is so enacted.