By Lengefeld H.B. No. 1849
76R3177 CAS-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to compulsory school attendance and to public school
1-3 kindergarten.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 25.001(a) and (b), Education Code, are
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) A person who is at least five years of age and under 21
1-8 years of age on the first day of September of any school year is
1-9 entitled to the benefits of the available school fund for that
1-10 year. Any other person enrolled in a prekindergarten class under
1-11 Section 29.153 or a kindergarten class under Section 29.151 is
1-12 entitled to the benefits of the available school fund.
1-13 (b) The board of trustees of a school district or its
1-14 designee shall admit into the public schools of the district free
1-15 of tuition a person who is entitled to the benefits of the
1-16 available school fund under Subsection (a) [over five and younger
1-17 than 21 years of age on the first day of September of the school
1-18 year in which admission is sought] if:
1-19 (1) the person and either parent of the person reside
1-20 in the school district;
1-21 (2) the person does not reside in the school district
1-22 but a parent of the person resides in the school district and that
1-23 parent is a joint managing conservator or the sole managing
1-24 conservator or possessory conservator of the person;
2-1 (3) the person and the person's guardian or other
2-2 person having lawful control of the person under a court order
2-3 reside within the school district;
2-4 (4) the person has established a separate residence
2-5 under Subsection (d);
2-6 (5) the person is homeless, as defined by 42 U.S.C.
2-7 Section 11302, regardless of the residence of the person, of either
2-8 parent of the person, or of the person's guardian or other person
2-9 having lawful control of the person;
2-10 (6) the person is a foreign exchange student placed
2-11 with a host family that resides in the school district by a
2-12 nationally recognized foreign exchange program, unless the school
2-13 district has applied for and been granted a waiver by the
2-14 commissioner under Subsection (e); or
2-15 (7) the person resides in the school district and is
2-16 18 years of age or older or the person's disabilities of minority
2-17 have been removed.
2-18 SECTION 2. Section 25.085(b), Education Code, is amended to
2-19 read as follows:
2-20 (b) Unless specifically exempted by Section 25.086, a child
2-21 who was [is] at least five [six] years of age on June 1 of the
2-22 preceding school year, or who was [is] younger than five [six]
2-23 years of age but [and] has previously been enrolled in
2-24 prekindergarten [first grade], and who has not yet reached the
2-25 child's 18th birthday shall attend school.
2-26 SECTION 3. Section 29.151, Education Code, is amended to
2-27 read as follows:
3-1 Sec. 29.151. FREE KINDERGARTEN. The board of trustees of
3-2 each school district shall establish and maintain one or more
3-3 kindergartens for the training of children residing in the district
3-4 who were [are] at least five years of age on June [September] 1 of
3-5 the preceding school year or who were younger than five years of
3-6 age but have previously been enrolled in prekindergarten.
3-7 SECTION 4. This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
3-8 school year.
3-9 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
3-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-14 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-15 passage, and it is so enacted.