By Oliveira                                            H.B. No. 686
         76R2630 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to instruction in the Spanish language in public schools.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 28.002(a) and (c), Education Code, are
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  Each school district that offers kindergarten through
 1-7     grade 12 shall offer, as a required curriculum:
 1-8                 (1)  a foundation curriculum that includes:
 1-9                       (A)  English language arts;
1-10                       (B)  mathematics;
1-11                       (C)  science; [and]
1-12                       (D)  social studies, consisting of Texas, United
1-13     States, and world history, government, and geography; and
1-14                       (E)  Spanish language arts; and
1-15                 (2)  an enrichment curriculum that includes:
1-16                       (A)  to the extent possible, languages other than
1-17     English and Spanish;
1-18                       (B)  health;
1-19                       (C)  physical education;
1-20                       (D)  fine arts;
1-21                       (E)  economics, with emphasis on the free
1-22     enterprise system and its benefits;
1-23                       (F)  career and technology education; and
1-24                       (G)  technology applications.
 2-1           (c)  The State Board of Education, with the direct
 2-2     participation of educators, parents, business and industry
 2-3     representatives, and employers shall by rule identify the essential
 2-4     knowledge and skills of each subject of the foundation curriculum
 2-5     that all students should be able to demonstrate and that will be
 2-6     used in evaluating textbooks under Chapter 31 and addressed on the
 2-7     assessment instruments required under Subchapter B, Chapter 39.  As
 2-8     a condition of accreditation, the board shall require each district
 2-9     to provide instruction in the essential knowledge and skills at
2-10     appropriate grade levels, including instruction in the essential
2-11     knowledge and skills of the Spanish language at  appropriate high
2-12     school grade levels to enable students to receive at least two
2-13     years of instruction.
2-14           SECTION 2.  The State Board of Education shall adopt rules
2-15     relating to instruction in the essential knowledge and skills of
2-16     the Spanish  language in accordance with Section 28.002(c),
2-17     Education Code, as amended by this Act, not later than  March 1,
2-18     2000.  The rules shall require each school district, as a condition
2-19     for accreditation, to provide Spanish language instruction
2-20     beginning with the 2000-2001 school year.  In addition, the rules
2-21     shall provide a transition period for requiring Spanish language
2-22     instruction in a manner that does not work an undue hardship on
2-23     students who are in the junior or senior year of high school during
2-24     the 2000-2001 school year.
2-25           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-4     passage, and it is so enacted.