1-1 By: Whitmire, Wentworth S.B. No. 1213
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 11, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Education; April 26, 1999,
1-4 reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the
1-5 following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 26, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1213 By: Zaffirini
1-7 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-8 AN ACT
1-9 relating to disciplinary options available to a teacher under a
1-10 school district's student code of conduct and to including
1-11 discipline strategies as part of school district staff development.
1-12 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13 SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 21.451, Education Code,
1-14 is amended to read as follows:
1-15 (a) The staff development provided by a school district must
1-16 be conducted in accordance with minimum standards developed by the
1-17 commissioner for program planning, preparation, and improvement.
1-18 The staff development:
1-19 (1) must include training in technology, [training and
1-20 training in] conflict resolution, and discipline strategies,
1-21 including classroom management, district discipline policies, the
1-22 student code of conduct adopted under Section 37.001, and Chapter
1-23 37; and
1-24 (2) may include instruction as to what is permissible
1-25 under law, including opinions of the United States Supreme Court,
1-26 in regard to prayers in public school.
1-27 SECTION 2. Section 37.001, Education Code, is amended by
1-28 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read
1-29 as follows:
1-30 (a) The board of trustees of an independent school district
1-31 shall, with the advice of its district-level committee established
1-32 under Section 11.251, adopt a student code of conduct for the
1-33 district. The student code of conduct must be posted and
1-34 prominently displayed at each school campus. In addition to
1-35 establishing standards for student conduct, the student code of
1-36 conduct must:
1-37 (1) specify the circumstances, in accordance with this
1-38 subchapter, under which a student may be removed from a classroom,
1-39 campus, or alternative education program;
1-40 (2) specify conditions that authorize or require a
1-41 principal or other appropriate administrator to transfer a student
1-42 to an alternative education program; [and]
1-43 (3) outline conditions under which a student may be
1-44 suspended as provided by Section 37.005 or expelled as provided by
1-45 Section 37.007; and
1-46 (4) specify disciplinary options available to a
1-47 teacher in addition to removing a student from the classroom under
1-48 Section 37.002, which must:
1-49 (A) comply with the educator's code of ethics
1-50 adopted under Section 21.041(b)(8); and
1-51 (B) include the authority to:
1-52 (i) verbally reprimand a student;
1-53 (ii) require a student to sit in an
1-54 assigned area of the classroom; and
1-55 (iii) withdraw privileges from a student.
1-56 (d) A teacher may not be disciplined in any manner for an
1-57 action the teacher takes that complies with the student code of
1-58 conduct and with the educator's code of ethics adopted under
1-59 Section 21.041(b)(8).
1-60 (e) This section does not affect a teacher's immunity from
1-61 civil liability under Section 22.051.
1-62 SECTION 3. Each school district shall amend the district's
1-63 student code of conduct to the extent necessary to comply with
1-64 Subsection (a), Section 37.001, Education Code, as amended by this
2-1 Act, not later than December 1, 1999.
2-2 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-7 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-8 passage, and it is so enacted.
2-9 * * * * *