By: Capriglione, Bonnen of Galveston, VanDeaver H.B. No. 638
        (Senate Sponsor - Powell)
         (In the Senate - Received from the House April 1, 2019;
  April 2, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on
  Education; May 7, 2019, reported favorably by the following vote:  
  Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 7, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the issuance of posthumous high school diplomas to
  certain students.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 28.0254(a), Education Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         (a)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, but
  subject to Subsection (b), on request of the student's parent, a
  school district shall issue a high school diploma posthumously to
  each student who died while enrolled in the district [at grade level
  12, provided that the student was academically on track at the time
  of death to receive a diploma] at the end of the school year in which
  the student was expected to graduate under the regular schedule of
  school attendance [in which the student died]. The high school
  diploma may not be issued before the graduation date of the class in
  which the student was enrolled at the time of death [For purposes
  of this subsection, "school year" includes any summer session
  following the spring semester].
         SECTION 2.  Section 28.0254(a), Education Code, as amended
  by this Act, applies beginning with students who would have
  graduated at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
         SECTION 3.  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, 2019.
 
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