By: Moody, Dale, Minjarez H.B. No. 1783
(Senate Sponsor - Menéndez)
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 13, 2015;
May 14, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
Justice; May 22, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 22, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the right of a school employee to report a crime and
persons subject to the prohibition on coercing another into
suppressing or failing to report information to a law enforcement
agency; creating a criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 12.104(b), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) An open-enrollment charter school is subject to:
(1) a provision of this title establishing a criminal
offense; and
(2) a prohibition, restriction, or requirement, as
applicable, imposed by this title or a rule adopted under this
title, relating to:
(A) the Public Education Information Management
System (PEIMS) to the extent necessary to monitor compliance with
this subchapter as determined by the commissioner;
(B) criminal history records under Subchapter C,
Chapter 22;
(C) reading instruments and accelerated reading
instruction programs under Section 28.006;
(D) accelerated instruction under Section
28.0211;
(E) high school graduation requirements under
Section 28.025;
(F) special education programs under Subchapter
A, Chapter 29;
(G) bilingual education under Subchapter B,
Chapter 29;
(H) prekindergarten programs under Subchapter E,
Chapter 29;
(I) extracurricular activities under Section
33.081;
(J) discipline management practices or behavior
management techniques under Section 37.0021;
(K) health and safety under Chapter 38;
(L) public school accountability under
Subchapters B, C, D, E, F, G, and J, Chapter 39;
(M) the requirement under Section 21.006 to
report an educator's misconduct; [and]
(N) intensive programs of instruction under
Section 28.0213; and
(O) the right of a school employee to report a
crime, as provided by Section 37.148.
SECTION 2. Subchapter E-1, Chapter 37, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 37.148 to read as follows:
Sec. 37.148. RIGHT TO REPORT CRIME. (a) An employee of a
school district or open-enrollment charter school may report a
crime witnessed at the school to any peace officer with authority to
investigate the crime.
(b) A school district or open-enrollment charter school may
not adopt a policy requiring a school employee to:
(1) refrain from reporting a crime witnessed at the
school; or
(2) report a crime witnessed at the school only to
certain persons or peace officers.
SECTION 3. Section 39.06(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(a) A public servant commits an offense if, in reliance on
information to which the public servant [he] has access by virtue of
the person's [his] office or employment and that has not been made
public, the person [he]:
(1) acquires or aids another to acquire a pecuniary
interest in any property, transaction, or enterprise that may be
affected by the information;
(2) speculates or aids another to speculate on the
basis of the information; or
(3) as a public servant, including as a [principal of
a] school administrator, coerces another into suppressing or
failing to report that information to a law enforcement agency.
SECTION 4. The change in law made by this Act to Section
39.06, Penal Code, applies to an offense committed on or after the
effective date of this Act. An offense committed before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense
was committed before the effective date of this Act if any element
of the offense occurred before that date.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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