SRC-MSY, TJG S.B. 55 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research Center S.B. 55 78R943 KSD-DBy: Zaffirini Subcommittee on Higher Education 3/10/2003 As Filed DIGEST AND PURPOSE Under current law, medical and nursing degree programs are not required to provide students with training on collecting forensic evidence. Nevertheless, doctors and nurses are often called upon to gather such evidence from victims of sexual assault. As proposed, S.B. 55 requires certain medical and nursing degree programs to provide the students enrolled in those programs with training on conducting forensic medical examinations. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 51F, Education Code, by adding Section 51.310, as follows: Sec. 51.310. FORENSIC EVIDENCE COLLECTION COURSE REQUIREMENT. (a) Requires an institution of higher education, as defined by Section 61.003, that offers a program leading to a doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy degree or to a degree that satisfies the educational requirement for licensure as a registered nurse, to establish a course in forensic evidence collection and, except as provided by Subsection (b), require completion of the course as a prerequisite to receiving that degree. (b) Authorizes the institution of higher education to determine whether to award to a student enrolled in the degree program credit for a substantially similar course successfully completed at another public or accredited private institution of higher education. (c) Requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to establish standards for the course required by this section. SECTION 2. Requires each institution of higher education offering a degree program to which Section 51.310, Education Code, as added by this Act, applies to offer the course required by that section not later than the fall 2004 semester. Provides that Section 51.310, Education Code, as added by this Act, only applies to a student who initially enrolls in a degree program to which that section applies on or after August 1, 2004. SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2003.