H.B. 1857 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


H.B. 1857
By: Mercer
Public Education
Committee Report (Amended)



BACKGROUND

A 1996 Children's Institute International Poll of American Adolescents
revealed that 47 percent of all teens believed their schools were becoming
more violent, 10 percent feared being shot or hurt by classmates carrying
weapons to schools, and more than 20 percent were afraid to go to
restrooms because these unsupervised areas were frequent sites of student
victimization (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1998). Youth
violence extracts an enormous toll on the United States' resources. 


PURPOSE
 
House Bill 1857 provides for the transfer of public school students who
are the victims of certain criminal conduct. This bill would prevent
students who are victims of criminal conduct from being re-victimized and
threatened by the same student perpetrator. 


RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or
institution.  


ANALYSIS

House Bill 1857 amends the Education Code by adding a section relating to
the transfer of public school students who are the victims of certain
criminal conduct or the siblings of the victims. The bill stipulates that
this added section applies to a student who is the victim of assault,
aggravated assault, sexual assault, or aggravated sexual assault committed
by another student who was assigned to the same campus as the victim and
has been placed in an alternative education program. 

The bill requires the board of trustees, on request of the victim's
parent, to transfer the victim to a district campus other than the campus
to which the victim was assigned at the time the conduct occurred or the
campus to which the student who committed the conduct is assigned. The
bill requires that such a  transfer be to a campus agreeable to the parent
and that this added section applies regardless of whether the conduct
occurred on or off of school property. 
 
The bill stipulates that these provisions apply to victims' siblings if
assigned to the same campus as the victim and have also received a threat
in connection with the conduct.           


EFFECTIVE DATE

Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2003. 


EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS

 Committee Amendment No. 1 stipulates that this added section applies to a
student who is the victim of assault, aggravated assault, sexual assault,
or aggravated sexual assault committed by another student who was assigned
to the same campus as the victim, or the sibling of such a victimized
student. The amendment requires a school district to consider input from
the student's parent regarding the location of the transfer of a
victimized student.