By Whitmire                                           S.B. No. 1213
         76R7987 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to discipline management techniques that a public school
 1-3     teacher may use.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 37, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 37.0021 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 37.0021.  OTHER DISCIPLINE MANAGEMENT AUTHORIZED FOR
 1-8     TEACHERS.  (a)  In addition to removing a student from class under
 1-9     Section 37.002 or using a discipline management technique
1-10     authorized under other law and school district policy, a teacher
1-11     may:
1-12                 (1)  verbally discipline a student;
1-13                 (2)  physically isolate a student in the teacher's
1-14     classroom;
1-15                 (3)  withhold  one or more privileges from a student;
1-16                 (4)  use a physically harmless prop in disciplining a
1-17     student; or
1-18                 (5)  use a disciplinary measure other than a measure
1-19     specified under Subdivision (1), (2), (3), or (4) that does not
1-20     rise to the level of corporal punishment and that is reasonably
1-21     calculated to maintain decorum, discipline, or order in the
1-22     teacher's classroom.
1-23           (b)  The board of trustees of a school district, a school
1-24     district employee, or the State Board for Educator Certification
 2-1     may not discipline a teacher in any manner for an action the
 2-2     teacher takes in accordance with this section.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
 2-4     school year.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.