82R1703 CAS-D By: Jackson H.B. No. 291 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to requiring a public hearing in the geographical area proposed for an open-enrollment charter school. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 12.110(c), Education Code, is amended to read as follows: (c) As part of the application procedure, the board: (1) to determine parental and community support for a charter for an open-enrollment charter school, shall hold a public hearing in the geographical area that, under Subsection (b) and Section 12.111(a)(14), is described in the application form; and (2) may require a petition supporting a charter for the [a] school signed by a specified number of parents or guardians of school-age children residing in the area [in which a school is proposed or may hold a public hearing to determine parental support for the school]. SECTION 2. Section 12.114, Education Code, is amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows: (c) Before the commissioner may approve a charter revision request filed wholly or partly to request approval to move the location of an open-enrollment charter school out of the geographical area described in the school's charter or to add an additional school campus at a location that is not within the geographical area described in the school's charter, the agency shall hold a public hearing in the geographical area in which the charter holder proposes to operate the school. SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only to an open-enrollment charter school charter application or request for a charter revision, as applicable, filed on or after the effective date of this Act. A charter application or request for a charter revision, as applicable, filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the application or request for a revision was filed, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.