BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1517

By: Coleman

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been suggested that although the availability of a school nurse can be important to a child's overall well-being, especially for children who have limited access to other basic health care, parents may not always be aware when a school does not have a full-time nurse on staff.       H.B. 1517 seeks to address this issue by establishing a parental notice requirement for a school above a certain enrollment level that lacks a full-time nurse or the equivalent of a full-time nurse for more than 30 consecutive instructional days during the same school year.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

H.B. 1517 amends the Education Code to require a public school, including an open-enrollment charter school, that does not have a licensed full-time nurse or the equivalent of a licensed full-time nurse assigned to be present at the school for more than 30 consecutive instructional days during the same school year to provide written notice of the absence 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 all regular student instructional hours at the school during the regular school day are covered by the assignment of at least one nurse.

H.B. 1517 requires the principal of the school to provide the required notice not later than the 30th instructional day after the first day the school does not have a full-time nurse or the equivalent assigned to be present at the school. The bill 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 such notice provided. The bill authorizes a school to satisfy the notice requirement by posting the notice on the school's website and requires a notice posted in that manner to be accessible from the website's home page by use of not more than three links. The bill's requirements do not apply to a public school district or open-enrollment charter school with an enrollment of less than 10,000 students. The bill applies beginning with the 2019-2020 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.