By: Whitmire, Wentworth S.B. No. 1213
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to disciplinary options available to a teacher under a
1-2 school district's student code of conduct and to including
1-3 discipline strategies as part of school district staff development.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 21.451, Education Code,
1-6 is amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) The staff development provided by a school district must
1-8 be conducted in accordance with minimum standards developed by the
1-9 commissioner for program planning, preparation, and improvement.
1-10 The staff development:
1-11 (1) must include training in technology, [training and
1-12 training in] conflict resolution, and discipline strategies,
1-13 including classroom management, district discipline policies, the
1-14 student code of conduct adopted under Section 37.001, and Chapter
1-15 37; and
1-16 (2) may include instruction as to what is permissible
1-17 under law, including opinions of the United States Supreme Court,
1-18 in regard to prayers in public school.
1-19 SECTION 2. Section 37.001, Education Code, is amended by
1-20 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read
1-21 as follows:
1-22 (a) The board of trustees of an independent school district
1-23 shall, with the advice of its district-level committee established
1-24 under Section 11.251, adopt a student code of conduct for the
2-1 district. The student code of conduct must be posted and
2-2 prominently displayed at each school campus. In addition to
2-3 establishing standards for student conduct, the student code of
2-4 conduct must:
2-5 (1) specify the circumstances, in accordance with this
2-6 subchapter, under which a student may be removed from a classroom,
2-7 campus, or alternative education program;
2-8 (2) specify conditions that authorize or require a
2-9 principal or other appropriate administrator to transfer a student
2-10 to an alternative education program; [and]
2-11 (3) outline conditions under which a student may be
2-12 suspended as provided by Section 37.005 or expelled as provided by
2-13 Section 37.007; and
2-14 (4) specify disciplinary options available to a
2-15 teacher in addition to removing a student from the classroom under
2-16 Section 37.002, which must:
2-17 (A) comply with the educator's code of ethics
2-18 adopted under Section 21.041(b)(8); and
2-19 (B) include the authority to:
2-20 (i) verbally reprimand a student;
2-21 (ii) require a student to sit in an
2-22 assigned area of the classroom; and
2-23 (iii) withdraw privileges from a student.
2-24 (d) A teacher may not be disciplined in any manner for an
2-25 action the teacher takes that complies with the student code of
2-26 conduct and with the educator's code of ethics adopted under
3-1 Section 21.041(b)(8).
3-2 (e) This section does not affect a teacher's immunity from
3-3 civil liability under Section 22.051.
3-4 SECTION 3. Each school district shall amend the district's
3-5 student code of conduct to the extent necessary to comply with
3-6 Subsection (a), Section 37.001, Education Code, as amended by this
3-7 Act, not later than December 1, 1999.
3-8 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.