1-1     By:  Cuellar (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)             H.B. No. 2011
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 1999;
 1-3     May 10, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Education; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the administration of the Texas Academic Skills
 1-9     Program.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 51.306(w), Education Code, is amended to
1-12     read as follows:
1-13           (w)(1)  The provisions of this subsection apply to high
1-14     school students taking the test required by this section.
1-15                 (2)  Each eligible high school student shall pay for
1-16     the cost of taking the test unless funds are appropriated for that
1-17     purpose.  If funds are appropriated for that purpose, the board and
1-18     the Texas Education Agency shall develop a mechanism for the
1-19     payment of the cost of the test, giving priority to the payment of
1-20     the cost of administering the test to an eligible high school
1-21     student shown to be financially needy under criteria established by
1-22     the board.
1-23                 (3)  The board shall arrange for the test to be offered
1-24     to high school students outside of regularly scheduled school days
1-25     and at locations throughout the state.
1-26                 (4)  Except as authorized by the student, including
1-27     student authorization to report the student's test scores to a
1-28     school administrator, test scores of a high school student shall be
1-29     reported only to the student and the student's parents.
1-30                 (5)  A high school student who fails to achieve the
1-31     minimum required score set by the board may not be required to take
1-32     developmental classes while in high school.  However, after
1-33     graduation from high school, a student who enters a public
1-34     institution of higher education must comply with the provisions of
1-35     this section.
1-36                 (6)  A high school student who achieves the minimum
1-37     required score set by the board shall be deemed to have met the
1-38     requirements of this section when enrolling at an institution of
1-39     higher education, provided that the student enrolls in the
1-40     institution not later than five years from the date the test is
1-41     taken and the set score level is achieved.  A student enrolling for
1-42     the first time in an institution of higher education after the
1-43     five-year period has elapsed must comply with all provisions of
1-44     this section.
1-45                 (7)  The board and the Texas Education Agency shall
1-46     work together to provide high school students, their parents, and
1-47     their schools with information about the Texas Academic Skills
1-48     Program and assist them in interpreting the results of the test.
1-49           SECTION 2.  Section 51.306, Education Code, is amended by
1-50     adding Subsection (x) to read as follows:
1-51           (x)  The test required by this section must be administered
1-52     in a time period that allows a student to complete the test while
1-53     working at the student's own reasonable pace.  The board shall
1-54     prescribe the time period for administering the test.
1-55           SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act takes effect
1-56     beginning with the 1999 fall semester.
1-57           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-58     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-59     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-60     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-61     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-62     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-63     passage, and it is so enacted.
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