81R8849 KJM-D
By: Van de Putte S.B. No. 845
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the tuition and fee exemption available to certain
military personnel and to permitting those personnel to transfer
the exemption to a child.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. This Act shall be known as the "Hazlewood Legacy
Act."
SECTION 2. Section 54.203, Education Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (g) and adding Subsections (k), (l),
and (m) to read as follows:
(a) The governing board of each institution of higher
education shall exempt the following persons from the payment of
tuition, [all] dues, fees, and other required charges, including
fees for correspondence courses but excluding general deposit fees,
student services fees, and any fees or charges for lodging, board,
or clothing, provided the person [persons] seeking the exemption
[exemptions were citizens of Texas at the time they] entered the
service at a location in this state, declared this state as the
person's home of record in the manner provided by the applicable
military or other service, or would have been determined to be a
resident of this state for purposes of Subchapter B at the time the
person entered the service [services indicated and have resided in
Texas for at least the period of 12 months before the date of
registration]:
(1) all nurses and honorably discharged members of the
armed forces of the United States who served during the
Spanish-American War or during World War I;
(2) all nurses, members of the Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps, members of the Women's Auxiliary Volunteer Emergency
Service, and all honorably discharged members of the armed forces
of the United States who served during World War II except those who
were discharged from service because they were over the age of 38 or
because of a personal request on the part of the person that the
person [he] be discharged from service;
(3) all honorably discharged men and women of the
armed forces of the United States who served during the national
emergency which began on June 27, 1950, and which is referred to as
the Korean War; and
(4) all persons who were honorably discharged from the
armed forces of the United States after serving on active military
duty, excluding training, for more than 180 days and who served a
portion of their active duty during:
(A) the Cold War which began on the date of the
termination of the national emergency cited in Subdivision (3) [of
this subsection];
(B) the Vietnam era which began on December 21,
1961, and ended on May 7, 1975;
(C) the Grenada and Lebanon era which began on
August 24, 1982, and ended on July 31, 1984;
(D) the Panama era which began on December 20,
1989, and ended on January 21, 1990;
(E) the Persian Gulf War which began on August 2,
1990, and ends on the date thereafter prescribed by Presidential
proclamation or September 1, 1997, whichever occurs first;
(F) the national emergency by reason of certain
terrorist attacks that began on September 11, 2001; or
(G) any future national emergency declared in
accordance with federal law.
(g) The governing board of a junior college district may
establish a fee for extraordinary costs associated with a specific
course or program and may provide that the exemptions provided by
this section [Subsections (a) and (b)] do not apply to this fee.
(k) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board by rule
shall prescribe procedures to allow a person who becomes eligible
for an exemption provided by Subsection (a) to waive the person's
right to any unused portion of the maximum number of cumulative
credit hours for which the person could receive the exemption and
assign the exemption for the unused portion of those credit hours to
a child of the person. The procedures shall provide:
(1) the manner in which a person may waive the
exemption and designate a child to receive the exemption;
(2) a procedure permitting the person to designate a
different child to receive the exemption if the child previously
designated to receive the exemption did not use the exemption under
this section for all of the assigned portion of credit hours; and
(3) a method of documentation to enable institutions
of higher education to determine the eligibility of the designated
child to receive the exemption.
(l) To be eligible to receive an exemption under Subsection
(k), the child must:
(1) be a student who is classified as a resident under
Subchapter B when the child enrolls in an institution of higher
education;
(2) make satisfactory academic progress in a degree,
certificate, or continuing education program as determined by the
institution at which the child is enrolled in accordance with the
policy of the institution's financial aid department, except that
the institution may not require the child to enroll in a minimum
course load; and
(3) be 25 years of age or younger on the first day of
the semester or other academic term for which the exemption is
claimed, except that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
by rule shall prescribe procedures by which a child who suffered
from a severe illness or other debilitating condition that affected
the child's ability to use the exemption before reaching that age
may be granted additional time to use the exemption corresponding
to the time the child was unable to use the exemption because of the
illness or condition.
(m) For purposes of this section, a person is the child of
another person if:
(1) the person is the stepchild or the biological or
adopted child of the other person; or
(2) the other person claimed the person as a dependent
on a federal income tax return filed for the preceding year or will
claim the person as a dependent on a federal income tax return for
the current year.
SECTION 3. Sections 54.203(e) and (e-1), Education Code, as
amended by Chapters 443 (H.B. 125) and 1334 (S.B. 1640), Acts of the
80th Legislature, Regular Session, 2007, are reenacted and amended
to read as follows:
(e) The exemption from fees provided for by this section [in
Subsection (a)] does not apply to a person who at the time of
registration is entitled to receive educational benefits under
federal legislation that may be used only for the payment of tuition
and fees if the value of those benefits received in a semester or
other term is equal to or exceeds the value of the exemption for the
same semester or other term. If the value of federal benefits that
may be used only for the payment of tuition and fees and are
received in a semester or other term does not equal or exceed the
value of the exemption for the same semester or other term, the
person is entitled to receive both those federal benefits [the
federal benefit] and the exemption in the same semester or other
term. The combined amount of the federal benefit that may be used
only for the payment of tuition and fees plus the amount of the
exemption received in a semester or other term may not exceed the
cost of tuition and fees for that semester or other term. [A person
is covered by the exemption if the person's right to benefits under
federal legislation is extinguished at the time of the person's
registration, except that a person may not receive an exemption
from fees under this section if the person's right to benefits under
federal legislation is extinguished because the person is in
default of repayment of a loan made to the person under a federal
program to provide or guarantee loans for educational purposes.]
(e-1) A person may not receive an exemption under this
section if the person is in default on a loan made or guaranteed for
educational purposes by the State of Texas.
SECTION 4. (a) Section 54.203, Education Code, as amended
by this Act, applies beginning with tuition and other fees charged
for the 2009 fall semester. If a person who becomes eligible for an
exemption in that semester under Subsections (k) and (l) of that
section has paid the tuition and other fees for that semester to
which the exemption applies, the institution of higher education
shall refund to the student the amount of the tuition and fees paid
by the person in the amount of the exemption. Tuition and other
fees charged for an academic period before the 2009 fall 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.
(b) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
prescribe the procedures required by Sections 54.203(k) and (l),
Education Code, as added by this Act, as soon as practicable after
the effective date of this Act. For that purpose, the coordinating
board may adopt the initial rules prescribing those procedures in
the manner provided by law for emergency rules.
SECTION 5. 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.