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.