By Siebert                                            H.B. No. 1940
         76R1415 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the first instructional day of a school year for public
 1-3     school students.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 25, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 25.0811 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 25.0811.  FIRST INSTRUCTIONAL DAY.   A school district
 1-8     may not begin instruction for students for a school year before
 1-9     September 1.
1-10           SECTION 2.  Section 25.084(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-11     read as follows:
1-12           (a)  A school district may operate its schools year-round on
1-13     either a single-track or a multitrack calendar.  If a school
1-14     district adopts a year-round system, the district may modify:
1-15                 (1)  the number of contract days of employees and the
1-16     number of days of operation, including any time required for staff
1-17     development, planning and preparation, and continuing education,
1-18     otherwise required by law;
1-19                 (2)  testing dates, data reporting, and related
1-20     matters; [and]
1-21                 (3)  the first day of instruction for students for a
1-22     school year as necessary, notwithstanding Section 25.0811; and
1-23                 (4)  a student's eligibility to participate in
1-24     extracurricular activities when the student's calendar track is not
 2-1     in session.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  Section 25.0811, Education Code, as added by this
 2-3     Act, and Section 25.084(a), Education Code, as amended by this Act,
 2-4     apply beginning with the 1999-2000 school year.
 2-5           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.