By Brown of Brazos                                    H.B. No. 3136
         76R8613 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a school district's authority to require additional
 1-3     assessment as a condition of transferring course credit under
 1-4     certain circumstances.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 28, Education Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Section 28.026 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 28.026.  LIMITING ADDITIONAL ASSESSMENT AS A CONDITION
 1-9     FOR COURSE CREDIT UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES.  (a) A school
1-10     district may not require a student who transfers to a public school
1-11     in the district from a nonaccredited private school described by
1-12     Section 25.086(a)(1), including a parochial or home school, to
1-13     perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument provided by the
1-14     district as a condition of transferring credit the student has
1-15     received for a course the student has satisfactorily completed as a
1-16     student at the private school if:
1-17                 (1)  the student provides the district with scores the
1-18     student has received on a nationally recognized norm-referenced
1-19     assessment instrument that demonstrates proficiency in the subject
1-20     matter of the course or with  another nationally recognized
1-21     equivalent measure, including a transcript and portfolio describing
1-22     course content; and
1-23                 (2)  a student who transfers to a public school in the
1-24     district from an accredited private school described by Section
 2-1     25.086(a)(1) is not required to perform satisfactorily on an
 2-2     assessment  instrument provided by the district as a condition of
 2-3     transferring credit for a course.
 2-4           (b)  In this section:
 2-5                 (1)  "Accredited private school" means a private school
 2-6     accredited by an accrediting association recognized by the
 2-7     commissioner to accredit private schools.
 2-8                 (2)  "Nonaccredited private school" means a private
 2-9     school that is not accredited by an accrediting association
2-10     recognized by the commissioner to accredit private schools.
2-11           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
2-12     school year.
2-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.