81R10856 CAS-F
By: Olivo H.B. No. 2477
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to placement of a student who has engaged in conduct for
which the student may be expelled from public school.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 37.007(e) and (g), Education Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(e) In accordance with 20 U.S.C. Section 7151, a local
educational agency, including a school district, home-rule school
district, or open-enrollment charter school, shall expel a student
who brings a firearm, as defined by 18 U.S.C. Section 921, to
school. The student must be expelled from the student's regular
campus for a period of at least one year, except that:
(1) the superintendent or other chief administrative
officer of the school district or of the other local educational
agency, as defined by 20 U.S.C. Section 7801, may modify the length
of the expulsion in the case of an individual student;
(2) the district or other local educational agency
shall provide educational services to an expelled student in a
disciplinary alternative education program as provided by Section
37.008 if the student is younger than 10 years of age on the date of
expulsion; and
(3) the district or other local educational agency
shall [may] provide educational services to an expelled student who
is 10 years of age or older in a disciplinary alternative education
program as provided in Section 37.008 unless, after placement in
the program, the student engages in conduct described by Subsection
(a) or is expelled from the program.
(g) In addition to any notice required under Article 15.27,
Code of Criminal Procedure, a school district shall inform each
educator who has responsibility for, or is under the direction and
supervision of an educator who has responsibility for, the
instruction of a student who has engaged in any violation listed in
this section of the student's misconduct. Each educator shall keep
the information received under this subsection confidential from
any person not entitled to the information under this subsection,
except that the educator may share the information with the
student's parent or guardian as provided for by state or federal
law. A teacher who receives information under this subsection may
not, solely on the basis of that information, remove the student
from the student's regularly assigned class. The State Board for
Educator Certification may revoke or suspend the certification of
an educator who intentionally violates this subsection.
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2009-2010
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, 2009.