By: Lewis, Cook, Guillen, H.B. No. 2304
Gonzalez Toureilles
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to tuition and fee exemptions at public institutions of
higher education for students who have been under the
conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective
Services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 54.211, Education Code,
is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 54.211. EXEMPTIONS FOR STUDENTS UNDER CONSERVATORSHIP
OF DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES [IN FOSTER OR OTHER
RESIDENTIAL CARE].
SECTION 2. Section 54.211(a), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) A student is exempt from the payment of tuition and fees
authorized in this chapter if the student:
(1) was [in foster care or other residential care]
under the conservatorship of the Department of Family and
Protective Services [on or after]:
(A) on the day preceding the student's 18th
birthday;
(B) on or after the day of the student's 14th
birthday, if the student was also eligible for adoption on or after
that day; [or]
(C) on the day the student graduated from high
school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma; or
(D) during an academic term in which the student
was enrolled in a dual credit course or other course for which a
high school student may earn joint high school and college credit;
and
(2) enrolls in an institution of higher education as
an undergraduate student or in a dual credit course or other course
for which a high school student may earn joint high school and
college credit not later than:
(A) the third anniversary of the date the student
was discharged from the conservatorship of the Department of Family
and Protective Services [foster or other residential care], the
date the student graduated from high school, or the date the student
received the equivalent of a high school diploma, whichever date is
earliest; or
(B) the student's 25th [21st] birthday.
SECTION 3. Section 54.211, Education Code, as amended by
this Act, applies beginning with tuition and other fees charged for
the 2009 fall semester. Tuition and other fees charged for an
academic period before that semester are covered by the law in
effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. 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, 2009.