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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