By:  Brown of Kaufman, Hupp, Grusendorf,                          H.B. No. 1406
 
    et al.                                                                   


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to a recommendation by a school district employee 
concerning a use of a psychotropic drug by a student or psychiatric 
evaluation or examination of a student and to refusal by a parent or 
certain other person to consent to administration of a psychotropic 
drug to a student or to psychiatric evaluation or examination of a 
student.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Education Code, is 
amended by adding Section 38.016 to read as follows:
	Sec. 38.016.  PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS AND PSYCHIATRIC 
EVALUATIONS OR EXAMINATIONS.  (a)  In this section:
		(1)  "Parent" includes a guardian or other person 
standing in parental relation.
		(2)  "Psychotropic drug" means a substance that is:                    
			(A)  used in the diagnosis, treatment, or 
prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication; and
			(B)  intended to have an altering effect on 
perception, emotion, or behavior.
	(b)  A school district employee may not:                                
		(1)  recommend that a student:                                         
			(A)  use a psychotropic drug; or                                      
			(B)  have a psychiatric evaluation or 
examination; or               
		(2)  use the refusal by a parent to consent to 
administration of a psychotropic drug to a student or to a 
psychiatric evaluation or examination of a student as grounds, by 
itself, for prohibiting the child from attending a class or 
participating in a school-related activity.
	(c)  Subsection (b) does not:                                           
		(1)  prevent an appropriate referral under the child 
find system required under 20 U.S.C. Section 1412, as amended; or
		(2)  prohibit a school district employee who is a 
registered nurse, advanced nurse practitioner, or physician from 
recommending that a child be evaluated by an appropriate medical 
practitioner.
	(d)  The board of trustees of each school district shall 
adopt a policy to ensure implementation and enforcement of this 
section.
	SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 2003-2004 
school year.       
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives 
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as 
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this 
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this 
Act takes effect September 1, 2003.