By Tillery                                             H.B. No. 708
         76R3552 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the rights and responsibilities of parents of public
 1-3     school students.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 26.001, Education Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 26.001.  PURPOSE; NOTICE.  (a)  Parents are partners
 1-8     with educators, administrators, and school district boards of
 1-9     trustees in their children's education.  Parents shall be
1-10     encouraged to actively participate in creating and implementing
1-11     educational programs for their children.
1-12           (b)  In implementing Subsection (a), a school district shall
1-13     provide to the parent or guardian of each district student at the
1-14     beginning of each school year or on enrollment of the student after
1-15     the beginning of a school year a handbook that includes the
1-16     parental rights and responsibilities specified by this chapter. The
1-17     handbook:
1-18                 (1)  must be written on a fifth grade reading level;
1-19     and
1-20                 (2)  may be drafted by the district- or campus-level
1-21     planning and decision-making committee established under Subchapter
1-22     F, Chapter 11.
1-23           (c)  The rights listed in this chapter are not exclusive.
1-24     This chapter does not limit a parent's rights under other law.
 2-1           (d) [(c)]  Unless otherwise provided by law, a board of
 2-2     trustees, administrator, educator, or other person may not limit
 2-3     parental rights.
 2-4           (e) [(d)]  Each board of trustees shall provide for
 2-5     procedures to consider complaints that a parent's right has been
 2-6     denied.
 2-7           (f) [(e)]  Each board of trustees shall cooperate in the
 2-8     establishment of ongoing operations of at least one parent-teacher
 2-9     organization at  each school in the district to promote parental
2-10     involvement in school activities.
2-11           SECTION 2.  Section 26.001, Education Code, as amended by
2-12     this  Act, applies beginning with the 1999-2000 school year, except
2-13     that for the 1999-2000 school year a school district shall
2-14     distribute, not later than November 1, 1999, the handbooks that
2-15     would otherwise be required to be distributed at the beginning of
2-16     the school year under Section 26.001(b), Education Code, as amended
2-17     by this Act.
2-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.