By: King of Zavala, et al. H.B. No. 741
        (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)
         (In the Senate - Received from the House April 16, 2007;
  April 17, 2007, read first time and referred to Subcommittee on
  Higher Education; May 8, 2007, reported favorably from Committee
  on Education by the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 8, 2007,
  sent to printer.)
 
 
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.
 
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