By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 38
(In the Senate - Filed November 12, 2012; January 28, 2013,
read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
April 29, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 29, 2013, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to determining a child's eligibility for a school
district's special education program on the basis of a visual
impairment.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 30.002, Education Code, is amended by
adding Subsections (c-1) and (c-2) to read as follows:
(c-1) To implement Subsection (c)(1) and to determine a
child's eligibility for a school district's special education
program on the basis of a visual impairment, the full individual and
initial evaluation of the student required by Section 29.004 must,
in accordance with commissioner rule:
(1) include an orientation and mobility evaluation
conducted:
(A) by a person who is appropriately certified as
an orientation and mobility specialist, as determined under
commissioner rule; and
(B) in a variety of lighting conditions and in a
variety of settings, including in the student's home, school, and
community and in settings unfamiliar to the student; and
(2) provide for a person who is appropriately
certified as an orientation and mobility specialist to participate,
as part of a multidisciplinary team, in evaluating data on which the
determination of the child's eligibility is based.
(c-2) The scope of any reevaluation by a school district of
a student who has been determined, after the full individual and
initial evaluation, to be eligible for the district's special
education program on the basis of a visual impairment shall be
determined, in accordance with 34 C.F.R. Sections 300.122 and
300.303 through 300.311, by a multidisciplinary team that includes,
as provided by commissioner rule, a person described by Subsection
(c-1)(1)(A).
SECTION 2. (a) Not later than January 1, 2014, the
commissioner of education shall adopt rules necessary to implement
Subsections (c-1) and (c-2), Section 30.002, Education Code, as
added by this Act.
(b) Not later than the beginning of the 2014-2015 school
year, Subsections (c-1) and (c-2), Section 30.002, Education Code,
as added by this Act, shall be implemented.
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.
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