1-1     By:  Cain                                              S.B. No. 870
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 4, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Education; April 7, 1999,
 1-4     reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 7, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 870                     By:  Cain
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the right of parents to information concerning special
1-10     education.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Chapter 26, Education Code, is amended by adding
1-13     Section 26.0081 to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 26.0081.  RIGHT TO INFORMATION CONCERNING SPECIAL
1-15     EDUCATION.  (a)  The agency shall produce and provide to school
1-16     districts sufficient copies of a comprehensive, easily understood
1-17     document that explains the process by which an individualized
1-18     education program is developed for a student in a special education
1-19     program and the rights and responsibilities of a parent concerning
1-20     the process.  The document must include information a parent needs
1-21     to effectively participate in an admission, review, and dismissal
1-22     committee meeting for the parent's child.
1-23           (b)  The agency will ensure that each school district
1-24     provides the document required under this section to the parent as
1-25     provided by 20 U.S.C. Section 1415(b):
1-26                 (1)  as soon as practicable after a child is referred
1-27     to determine the child's eligibility for admission into the
1-28     district's special education program, but at least five school days
1-29     before the date of the initial meeting of the admission, review,
1-30     and dismissal committee; and
1-31                 (2)  at any other time on reasonable request of the
1-32     child's parent.
1-33           SECTION 2.  (a)  The Texas Education Agency shall ensure that
1-34     each school district provides the document required under Section
1-35     26.0081, Education Code, as added by this Act, not later than June
1-36     1, 2001, to the parent of or the person standing in parental
1-37     relation to each child participating in the district's special
1-38     education program.
1-39           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-40           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-41     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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