80R3877 TAD-D
 
  By: King of Zavala H.B. No. 741
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to an exemption from tuition and fees at public
institutions of higher education for children of certain volunteer
peace officers who are killed or disabled in the line of duty.
       BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
       SECTION 1.  The heading to Section 54.204, Education Code,
is amended to read as follows:
       Sec. 54.204.  CHILDREN OF DISABLED FIREFIGHTERS [FIREMEN]
AND LAW ENFORCEMENT [PEACE] OFFICERS.  
       SECTION 2.  Sections 54.204(a), (b), (g), and (h), Education
Code, are amended to read as follows:
       (a)  In this section:
             (1)  "Eligible firefighter or law enforcement officer
[employee]" means:
                   (A)  a full-paid or volunteer firefighter;
                   (B)  [, or] a full-paid or volunteer municipal,
county, or state peace officer, including [or a custodial employee
of the Texas Department of Corrections, or] a game warden; or
                   (C)  a custodial officer of the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice.
             (2)  "Disability" means inability to engage in any
substantial gainful activity by reason of a [any] medically
determinable physical or mental impairment that [which] can be
expected to result in death or to be of long-continued and
indefinite duration. A person is [An individual shall] not [be]
considered to be under a disability unless the person provides any
[he furnishes such] proof of the [its] existence of the disability 
as may be required.
       (b)  The governing board of each institution of higher
education shall exempt from the payment of all dues, fees, and
charges any person whose parent is an eligible firefighter or law
enforcement officer [employee] who has suffered an injury,
resulting in death or disability, sustained in the line of duty
according to the regulations and criteria then in effect governing
the department or agency in which the eligible firefighter or law
enforcement officer volunteered or [he] was employed. The
exemption does not apply to general property deposits or to fees or
charges for lodging, board, or clothing.
       (g)  An eligible firefighter or law enforcement officer
[employee] whose injury results in a disability shall submit to a
physical examination by a physician designated by the United States
Social Security Administration to conduct physical examinations
and to make disability reports to the Social Security
Administration. If the physician decides the injury received has
resulted in a disability, the physician [he] shall certify that  
[this] fact to the head of the department in which the eligible
firefighter or law enforcement officer volunteers or is employed
[employs the employee].
       (h)  The head of the department in which the eligible
firefighter or law enforcement officer volunteered or was employed
[the eligible employee] at the time the firefighter or law
enforcement officer [he] sustained the injury shall file a
certificate with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board[,
Texas College and University System,] on a form prepared by the
board for the purpose. The head of the department shall attach the
certificate of the examining physician if an examination is
required by Subsection (g) of this section. A copy of the
certificate on file with the coordinating board is sufficient
evidence for the institution to grant the exemption.
       SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies
beginning with dues, fees, and charges imposed by a public
institution of higher education for the 2007 fall semester. Dues,
fees, and charges imposed in a semester or session before the 2007
fall semester are governed by the applicable law in effect before
the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
       SECTION 4.  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, 2007.