BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 418

By: Ellis

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties express concern that many parents do not realize that a school nurse listed in a school's personnel directory is only a part-time nurse, and the parties note that there is usually no indication of the days and hours that the nurse is assigned to be at the campus. S.B. 418 seeks to address these concerns.

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

S.B. 418 amends the Education Code to require a public school, including an open-enrollment charter school, that does not have a full-time nurse or the equivalent of a full-time nurse assigned to be present on the campus for more than 30 consecutive instructional days during the same school year to provide written notice of the absence of a nurse to the parent of or other person standing in parental relation to each student enrolled in the school. The bill establishes that a school has the equivalent of a full-time nurse if the school has two or more nurses assigned to the school and those nurses' combined presence covers all regular student instructional hours at a campus during the regular school year. The bill requires the principal of the school to provide the notice not later than the 30th instructional day after the first day the school does not have a full-time nurse assigned to be present on the campus and authorizes a school to satisfy this requirement by posting the notice on the school's Internet website. The bill requires a notice posted on a school's Internet website to be accessible from the home page of the Internet website by use of not more than three links.

S.B. 418 requires the school to make a good faith effort to ensure that the notice is provided in a bilingual form to any parent or other person standing in parental relation whose primary language is not English and to retain a copy of any notice provided. The bill exempts a school district that is located in a county with a population of less than 100,000 from the bill's requirements. The bill's provisions apply beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.