1-1     By:  Maxey (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)                H.B. No. 633
 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 favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the transfer of assistive technology devices for
 1-9     students with disabilities who leave certain school districts.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 30, Education Code, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 30.0015 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 30.0015.  TRANSFER OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICES.  (a)
1-14     In this section:
1-15                 (1)  "Assistive technology device" means any device,
1-16     including equipment or a product system, that is used to increase,
1-17     maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a student with a
1-18     disability.
1-19                 (2)  "Student with a disability" means a student who is
1-20     eligible to participate in a school district's special education
1-21     program under Section 29.003.
1-22                 (3)  "Transfer" means the process by which a school
1-23     district that has purchased an assistive technology device may
1-24     sell, lease, loan, or give the device for the continuing use of a
1-25     student with a disability changing the school of attendance in the
1-26     district or leaving the district.
1-27           (b)  The agency by rule shall develop and annually
1-28     disseminate standards for a school district's transfer of an
1-29     assistive technology device to an entity listed in this subsection
1-30     when a student with a disability using the device changes the
1-31     school of attendance in the district or ceases to attend school in
1-32     the district that purchased the device and the student's parents,
1-33     or the student if the student has the legal capacity to enter into
1-34     a contract, agrees to the transfer.  The device may be transferred
1-35     to:
1-36                 (1)  the school or school district in which the student
1-37     enrolls;
1-38                 (2)  a state agency, including the Texas Rehabilitation
1-39     Commission and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
1-40     Retardation, that provides services to the student following the
1-41     student's graduation from high school; or
1-42                 (3)  the student's parents, or the student if the
1-43     student has the legal capacity to enter into a contract.
1-44           (c)  The standards developed under this section must include:
1-45                 (1)  a uniform transfer agreement to convey title to an
1-46     assistive technology device and applicable warranty information;
1-47                 (2)  a method for computing the fair market value of an
1-48     assistive technology device, including a reasonable allowance for
1-49     use; and
1-50                 (3)  a process to obtain written consent by the
1-51     student's parents, or the student where appropriate, to the
1-52     transfer.
1-53           (d)  This section does not alter any existing obligation
1-54     under federal or state law to provide assistive technology devices
1-55     to students with disabilities.
1-56           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-57     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-58     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-59     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-60     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-61     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-62     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-63                                  * * * * *