81R13626 KKA-F
By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 2248
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to public school students placed in foster care.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 25, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 25.007 to read as follows:
Sec. 25.007. TRANSITION ASSISTANCE FOR STUDENTS IN FOSTER
CARE. (a) The legislature finds that:
(1) students in foster care are faced with numerous
transitions during their formative years; and
(2) students in foster care who move from one school to
another during the high school years are faced with special
challenges to learning and future achievement.
(b) In recognition of the challenges faced by students in
foster care, the agency shall assist the transition of foster care
students from one school to another by:
(1) ensuring that school records for a student in
foster care are transferred to the student's new school not later
than the 14th day after the date the student begins enrollment at
the school;
(2) developing systems to ease transition of a student
in foster care during the first two weeks of enrollment at a new
school;
(3) developing procedures for awarding credit for
course work, including electives, completed by a student in foster
care while enrolled at another school;
(4) promoting practices that facilitate access by a
student in foster care to extracurricular programs, summer
programs, credit transfer services, electronic courses provided
under Chapter 30A, and after-school tutoring programs at minimum or
no cost;
(5) establishing procedures to lessen the adverse
impact of the movement of a student in foster care to a new school
after the end of the student's junior year of high school;
(6) encouraging or maintaining partnerships between
the Department of Family and Protective Services, foster parents,
and affected school districts;
(7) encouraging school districts and open-enrollment
charter schools to provide services for a student in foster care in
transition when applying for admission to postsecondary study and
when seeking sources of funding for postsecondary study;
(8) requiring school districts, campuses, and
open-enrollment charter schools to accept a referral for special
education services made for a student in foster care by a school
previously attended by the student; and
(9) providing other assistance as identified by the
agency.
SECTION 2. Section 30A.002(b), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) A student is eligible to enroll full-time in courses
provided through the state virtual school network only if:
(1) the student was enrolled in a public school in this
state in the preceding school year; [or]
(2) the student:
(A) is a dependent of a member of the United
States military;
(B) was previously enrolled in high school in
this state; and
(C) does not reside in this state due to a
military deployment or transfer; or
(3) the student has been placed in foster care.
SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with the 2009-2010
school year.
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.