By Dukes                                               H.B. No. 835
         76R3912 BDH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to limitations on emergency certification of public school
 1-3     educators.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 21.0495 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 21.0495.  LIMIT ON EMERGENCY CERTIFICATION.  The board
 1-8     may not issue more than one emergency certificate to an educator
 1-9     under this chapter.  This limitation applies regardless of whether
1-10     the educator requests an emergency certificate of a different class
1-11     than the emergency certificate previously received or whether the
1-12     educator requests an emergency certificate in connection with
1-13     employment by a school district other than the district that
1-14     employed the educator when the previous emergency certificate was
1-15     received.
1-16           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect July 1, 1999.
1-17           (b)  Section 21.0495, Education Code, as added by this Act,
1-18     applies to an educator who has received at least one emergency
1-19     certificate, regardless of whether the certificate was received
1-20     before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.
1-21           (c)  Section 21.0495, Education Code, as added by this Act,
1-22     does not affect the validity of an emergency certificate issued by
1-23     the State Board for Educator Certification before the effective
1-24     date of this Act.  An emergency certificate issued before the
 2-1     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the
 2-2     time the certificate was issued, and that law is continued in
 2-3     effect for that purpose.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-9     and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
2-10     terms, and it is so enacted.