By Greenberg                                          H.B. No. 2609
         76R8447 KKA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of scholarships and wage supplementation
 1-3     for professional child-care workers.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 302, Labor Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Section 302.006 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 302.006.  PROFESSIONAL CHILD-CARE TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS.
 1-8     (a)  The commission shall develop and administer a program under
 1-9     which the commission awards scholarships for professional
1-10     child-care training to eligible recipients seeking to obtain Child
1-11     Development Associate (CDA) national credentials.
1-12           (b)  Each recipient shall receive a $1,000 scholarship.  The
1-13     recipient shall apply $700 of the scholarship toward training
1-14     expenses and the remaining $300 toward obtaining CDA national
1-15     credentials.  A person may receive only one scholarship.
1-16           (c)  To be eligible to receive a scholarship under this
1-17     section, a person must:
1-18                 (1)  be employed in a child-care facility, as defined
1-19     by Section 42.002, Human Resources Code;
1-20                 (2)  intend to obtain CDA  national credentials;
1-21                 (3)  agree to work in a child-care facility, as defined
1-22     by Section 42.002, Human Resources Code, for at least three
1-23     additional years; and
1-24                 (4)  satisfy any other requirements adopted by the
 2-1     commission.
 2-2           (d)  In addition, the commission may provide wage
 2-3     supplementation in an amount and for a period determined by the
 2-4     commission to a scholarship recipient who provides care for
 2-5     children younger than four years of age.  The commission may
 2-6     provide the wage supplementation for not more than 18 months after
 2-7     the date the commission awards the scholarship.
 2-8           (e)  The commission shall fund scholarships and any wage
 2-9     supplementation provided under this section through federal Child
2-10     Care Development funds or other funding sources available to the
2-11     commission.  Total funding may not exceed $2,000,000 per state
2-12     biennium.
2-13           (f)  The commission shall adopt rules necessary to implement
2-14     this section.  The rules must include provisions that:
2-15                 (1)  address the computation of the three-year service
2-16     requirement prescribed by this section; and
2-17                 (2)  ensure that the commission may recover scholarship
2-18     money from a recipient who fails to comply with that service
2-19     requirement or any other requirement imposed by the commission.
2-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.