By Gallego, Chavez                                    H.B. No. 3762
         76R4044 JSA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to granting college credit for completion of the Texas
 1-3     Youth Commission resocialization program.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 51.309 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 51.309.  COURSE CREDIT FOR TEXAS YOUTH COMMISSION
 1-8     RESOCIALIZATION PROGRAM.  (a)  Each institution of higher education
 1-9     shall grant a person enrolled in the institution as an
1-10     undergraduate student course credit for successful completion of a
1-11     comprehensive resocialization program administered by the Texas
1-12     Youth Commission to children committed to the commission, if the
1-13     program includes a mandatory academic component.  On the written
1-14     request of a person who successfully completed the comprehensive
1-15     resocialization program, the Texas Youth Commission shall certify
1-16     to an institution of higher education designated by the person that
1-17     the person successfully completed the program, including the
1-18     academic component.
1-19           (b)  Course credit granted under this section must be for at
1-20     least three semester credit hours.  The student is entitled to
1-21     count the course credit toward the semester credit hours required
1-22     for the student's undergraduate certificate or degree at the
1-23     institution.  The institution may grant the course credit as credit
1-24     for a particular course at the institution or as credit for an
 2-1     elective course that is not equivalent to any course offered by the
 2-2     institution.  The institution is not required to grant the course
 2-3     credit in satisfaction of any particular course required for
 2-4     completion of the student's certificate or degree program.
 2-5           (c)  The Texas Youth Commission shall consult with the Texas
 2-6     Higher Education Coordinating Board at least once a year relating
 2-7     to the academic component of the commission's comprehensive
 2-8     resocialization program.  The coordinating board may recommend
 2-9     changes in the academic component to assist the commission to
2-10     ensure that the program assists children in the program to develop
2-11     academic skills and knowledge that are necessary to perform
2-12     college-level work.
2-13           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999 fall
2-14     semester, and applies to an undergraduate student enrolled in an
2-15     institution of higher education regardless of when the student
2-16     entered the institution.
2-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-23     passage, and it is so enacted.