BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

                                                                                                                                       C.S.S.B. 776

                                                                                                                               By: Jackson, Mike

                                                                                                                                      Public Health

                                                                                                        Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

The Occupations Code, provides that an applicant for a license to practice chiropractic must have “…completed 90 semester hours of college courses at a school other than a chiropractic school".  Some institutions of higher education that offer doctoral chiropractic degrees also offer undergraduate courses of instruction unrelated to those doctoral chiropractic degree programs.  These courses are provided as part of bachelors degree programs unrelated to the chiropractic program. The Staff of the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners recently questioned whether undergraduate courses taken at one of these institutions constitute college hours completed “at a school other than a chiropractic school".  Although the statutory language in question has been in the law in one form or another for several decades, this is believed to be the first instance in which this statute has been asserted to deny an applicant the right to take the exam and obtain licensure. Consequently, the Attorney General recently ruled that courses not related to a chiropractic degree program offered by institutions that also offer chiropractic degree programs may be recognized by the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners by rule, GA-0487. CSSB 776 clarifies the statute by codifying the Attorney General’s ruling that such courses qualify for the undergraduate course audits required by current law.

 

 

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

 

CSSB 776 prohibits a person who is a member of the faculty or board of trustees of a doctor of chiropractic degree program to serve on the Texas Board of  Chiropractic Examiners. It also changes references in the bill from chiropractic schools to doctor of chiropractic degree programs.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2007.

 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

 

CSSB 776 amends the original by changing a doctoral chiropractic degree program to a doctor of chiropractic degree program.