By Armbrister                                         S.B. No. 1126
         76R6863 SMJ-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of services at state schools to persons
 1-3     with mental retardation.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 533.038, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
 1-7           (d)  The department shall admit to a state school an
 1-8     applicant who is a person with mental retardation and who meets the
 1-9     criteria established by the department for admission to a state
1-10     school.
1-11           SECTION 2.  Section 533.083, Health and Safety Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 533.083.  [CRITERIA FOR] EXPANSION, CLOSURE, OR
1-14     CONSOLIDATION OF FACILITY.  (a)  The department shall establish
1-15     objective criteria for determining when a new facility may be
1-16     needed and when a facility may be expanded, closed, or
1-17     consolidated.
1-18           (b)  The department may not close a state school or
1-19     discontinue full-time residential services at a state school
1-20     without specific authorization from the legislature.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-2     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-3     passage, and it is so enacted.