83R3718 JSL-D
By: Murphy H.B. No. 1219
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to removal of the parental approval requirement for a
student's participation in a bilingual education program.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 29.056(a), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) The agency shall establish standardized criteria for
the identification, assessment, and classification of students of
limited English proficiency eligible for entry into the program or
exit from the program. [The student's parent must approve a
student's entry into the program, exit from the program, or
placement in the program.] The school district or the student's
parent may appeal the decision under Section 29.064. The criteria
for identification, assessment, and classification may include:
(1) results of a home language survey conducted within
four weeks of each student's enrollment to determine the language
normally used in the home and the language normally used by the
student, conducted in English and the home language, signed by the
student's parents if the student is in kindergarten through grade 8
or by the student if the student is in grades 9 through 12, and kept
in the student's permanent folder by the language proficiency
assessment committee;
(2) the results of an agency-approved English language
proficiency test administered to all students identified through
the home survey as normally speaking a language other than English
to determine the level of English language proficiency, with
students in kindergarten or grade 1 being administered an oral
English proficiency test and students in grades 2 through 12 being
administered an oral and written English proficiency test; and
(3) the results of an agency-approved proficiency test
in the primary language administered to all students identified
under Subdivision (2) as being of limited English proficiency to
determine the level of primary language proficiency, with students
in kindergarten or grade 1 being administered an oral primary
language proficiency test and students in grades 2 through 12 being
administered an oral and written primary language proficiency test.
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2013-2014
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, 2013.