AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The purpose of S.B. 69 is to notify parents of public school students and others in parental relation to students if the public school attended by those students does not have a full-time school nurse assigned to the campus for more than 30 consecutive instructional days during the same school year.
Many parents do not realize that a school nurse listed in a school's personnel directory is only a part-time nurse, and there is usually no indication of the days and hours that the nurse is assigned to be at the campus.
S.B. 69 requires school principals to provide notice to parents not later than the 30th instructional day after the first day that the school does not have a full-time school nurse assigned to the campus.
As proposed, S.B. 69 amends current law relating to a notification requirement if a public school campus or open-enrollment charter school does not have a nurse assigned to the campus during all instructional hours.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Education Code, by adding Section 38.020, as follows:
Sec. 38.020. PARENTAL NOTIFICATION CONCERNING NURSES. (a) Defines "nurse."
(b) Requires 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 a 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.
(c) Provides that a school has the equivalent of a full-time nurse under Subsection (b) if the school has two or more assigned nurses and those nurses' combined presence covers all regular student instructional hours during the regular school day.
(d) Requires the principal of the school to provide the notice required by Subsection (b) 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.
(e) Requires the school to make a good faith effort to ensure that the notice required by this section is provided in a bilingual form to any parent or other person standing in parental relation whose primary language is not English, and retain a copy of any notice provided under this section.
(f) Authorizes a school to satisfy the notice requirement under Subsection (d) by posting the notice on the school's Internet website. Requires that the notice posted under this subsection be accessible from the home page of the Internet website by use of not more than three links.
SECTION 2. Provides that this Act applies beginning with the 2015-2016 school year.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2015.