By Jones of Dallas                                    H.B. No. 1228
         76R4521 ESH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the student/teacher ratio in public school
 1-3     prekindergarten classes.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 29.153, Education Code, is amended by
 1-6     adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
 1-7           (h)  A school district's prekindergarten program must
 1-8     maintain a student/teacher ratio equivalent to the staff/child
 1-9     ratio applicable to a child-care facility under rules adopted by
1-10     the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services under Section
1-11     42.042, Human Resources Code.
1-12           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
1-13     school year.
1-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-20     passage, and it is so enacted.