By Corte                                                H.B. No. 23
         77R632 KKA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to personal leave for public school employees who are
 1-3     assaulted at work.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 22.003(b), Education Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  In addition to all other days of leave provided by this
 1-8     section or by the school district, an employee of a school district
 1-9     who is physically assaulted during the performance of the
1-10     employee's regular duties is entitled to the number of days of
1-11     leave necessary to recuperate from all physical injuries sustained
1-12     as a result of the assault.  At the request of an employee, the
1-13     school district must immediately assign an employee to assault
1-14     leave and, on investigation of the claim, may change the assault
1-15     leave status and charge the leave against the employee's accrued
1-16     personal leave or against an employee's pay if insufficient accrued
1-17     personal leave is available.  Days of leave taken under this
1-18     subsection may not be deducted from accrued personal leave.  The
1-19     period provided by this subsection may not extend more than one
1-20     year [two years] beyond the date of the assault, except that an
1-21     employee  may, before the fifth anniversary of the date of the
1-22     assault, receive additional leave totaling not more than one year
1-23     if two physicians certify that additional recovery time is
1-24     medically necessary due to a complication or another injury
 2-1     resulting from the assault.  Notwithstanding any other law, assault
 2-2     leave policy benefits due to an employee shall be coordinated with
 2-3     temporary income benefits due from workers' compensation so that
 2-4     the employee's total compensation from temporary income benefits
 2-5     and assault leave policy benefits equals 100 percent of the
 2-6     employee's weekly rate of pay.
 2-7           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately, applies
 2-8     beginning with the 2001-2002 school year, and applies only to a
 2-9     public school employee assaulted during that school year or later.
2-10     An assault of an employee before that school year is governed by
2-11     the law in effect at the time the assault occurs, and that law is
2-12     continued in effect for that purpose.