| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to public school students placed in foster care. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 25, Education Code, is |
|
|
amended by adding Section 25.007 to read as follows: |
|
|
Sec. 25.007. TRANSITION ASSISTANCE FOR STUDENTS IN FOSTER |
|
|
CARE. (a) The legislature finds that: |
|
|
(1) students in foster care are faced with numerous |
|
|
transitions during their formative years; and |
|
|
(2) students in foster care who move from one school to |
|
|
another during the high school years are faced with special |
|
|
challenges to learning and future achievement. |
|
|
(b) In recognition of the challenges faced by students in |
|
|
foster care, the agency shall assist the transition of foster care |
|
|
students from one school to another by: |
|
|
(1) ensuring that school records for a student in |
|
|
foster care are transferred to the student's new school not later |
|
|
than the 14th day after the date the student begins enrollment at |
|
|
the school; |
|
|
(2) developing systems to ease transition of a student |
|
|
in foster care during the first two weeks of enrollment at a new |
|
|
school; |
|
|
(3) developing procedures for awarding credit for |
|
|
course work, including electives, completed by a student in foster |
|
|
care while enrolled at another school; |
|
|
(4) promoting practices that facilitate access by a |
|
|
student in foster care to extracurricular programs, summer |
|
|
programs, credit transfer services, electronic courses provided |
|
|
under Chapter 30A, and after-school tutoring programs at minimum or |
|
|
no cost; |
|
|
(5) establishing procedures to lessen the adverse |
|
|
impact of the movement of a student in foster care to a new school |
|
|
after the end of the student's junior year of high school; |
|
|
(6) encouraging or maintaining partnerships between |
|
|
the Department of Family and Protective Services, foster parents, |
|
|
and affected school districts; |
|
|
(7) encouraging school districts and open-enrollment |
|
|
charter schools to provide services for a student in foster care in |
|
|
transition when applying for admission to postsecondary study and |
|
|
when seeking sources of funding for postsecondary study; |
|
|
(8) requiring school districts, campuses, and |
|
|
open-enrollment charter schools to accept a referral for special |
|
|
education services made for a student in foster care by a school |
|
|
previously attended by the student; and |
|
|
(9) providing other assistance as identified by the |
|
|
agency. |
|
|
SECTION 2. Section 30A.002(b), Education Code, is amended |
|
|
to read as follows: |
|
|
(b) A student is eligible to enroll full-time in courses |
|
|
provided through the state virtual school network only if: |
|
|
(1) the student was enrolled in a public school in this |
|
|
state in the preceding school year; [or] |
|
|
(2) the student: |
|
|
(A) is a dependent of a member of the United |
|
|
States military; |
|
|
(B) was previously enrolled in high school in |
|
|
this state; and |
|
|
(C) does not reside in this state due to a |
|
|
military deployment or transfer; or |
|
|
(3) the student has been placed in foster care. |
|
|
SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with the 2009-2010 |
|
|
school year. |
|
|
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, 2009. |