By: Thibaut, Guillen H.B. No. 2347 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 2347By: Duncan By: Duncan

(In the Senate - Received from the House April 29, 2009; May 4, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on Higher Education; May 25, 2009, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 25, 2009, sent to printer.)

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to tuition and laboratory fee exemptions at public institutions of higher education for certain peace officers enrolled in criminal justice or law enforcement management-related course work.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 54.208, Education Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 54.208. FIREFIGHTERS AND PEACE OFFICERS [FIREMEN] ENROLLED IN CERTAIN [FIRE SCIENCE] COURSES. (a) The governing board of an institution of higher education [boards of the state institutions of collegiate rank supported in whole or in part by public funds] shall exempt from the payment of tuition and laboratory fees a student [any person] who is employed as a firefighter [fireman] by a [any] political subdivision of this [the] state and who enrolls in a course or courses offered as part of a fire science curriculum.

(b) The governing board of an institution of higher education shall exempt from the payment of tuition and laboratory fees charged by the institution for a criminal justice or law enforcement course or courses an undergraduate student who:

(1) is employed as a peace officer by this state or by a political subdivision of this state;

(2) is enrolled in a criminal justice or law enforcement-related degree program at the institution;

(3) is making satisfactory academic progress toward the student's degree as determined by the institution; and

(4) applies for the exemption at least one week before the last date of the institution's regular registration period for the applicable semester or other term.

(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), a student may not receive an exemption under that subsection for any course if the student has previously attempted a number of semester credit hours for courses taken at any institution of higher education while classified as a resident student for tuition purposes in excess of the maximum number of those hours specified by Section 61.0595(a) as eligible for funding under the formulas established under Section 61.059.

(d) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), the governing board of an institution of higher education may not provide exemptions under that subsection to students enrolled in a specific class in a number that exceeds 20 percent of the maximum student enrollment designated by the institution for that class.

(e) An [The] exemption provided under this section does not apply to deposits that [which] may be required in the nature of security for the return or proper care of property loaned for the use of students.

(f) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall adopt:

(1) rules governing the granting or denial of an exemption under this section, including rules relating to the determination of a student's eligibility for an exemption; and

(2) a uniform listing of degree programs covered by the exemption under this section.

(g) If the legislature does not specifically appropriate funds to an institution of higher education in an amount sufficient to pay the institution's costs in complying with this section for a semester, the governing board of the institution of higher education shall report to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Appropriations Committee the cost to the institution of complying with this section for that semester.

SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act to Section 54.208, Education Code, apply beginning with tuition and laboratory fees charged for the 2011 fall semester. Tuition and laboratory fees charged for an academic period before the 2011 fall semester are covered by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect January 1, 2011.

* * * * *