84R18343 MK-D
By: King of Hemphill, Keffer, Springer, H.B. No. 2610
et al.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the minimum number of minutes of instruction for
students to be provided by public school districts and the
scheduling of the last day of school for students by public school
districts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 25.081, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 25.081. OPERATION OF SCHOOLS. (a) Except as
authorized under Subsection (b) of this section, Section 25.084, or
Section 29.0821, for each school year each school district must
operate so that the district provides for at least 75,600 minutes
[180 days] of instruction, including intermissions and recesses,
for students.
(b) The commissioner may approve the instruction of
students for fewer than the number of minutes [days] required under
Subsection (a) if disaster, flood, extreme weather conditions, fuel
curtailment, or another calamity causes the closing of schools.
(c) If the commissioner does not approve reduced
instruction time under Subsection (b), a school district may add
additional minutes to the end of the district's normal school hours
as necessary to compensate for minutes of instruction lost due to
school closures caused by disaster, flood, extreme weather
conditions, fuel curtailment, or another calamity.
(d) The commissioner may adopt rules for the application, on
the basis of the minimum minutes of instruction required by
Subsection (a), of any provision of this title that refers to a
minimum number of days of instruction under this section.
(e) For purposes of this code, a reference to a day of
instruction means 420 minutes of instruction.
SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 25, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 25.0812 to read as follows:
Sec. 25.0812. LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. (a) Except as provided
by Subsection (b), a school district may not schedule the last day
of school for students for a school year before May 15.
(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a school district that
does not offer each grade level from kindergarten through grade 12
and whose prospective or former students generally attend school in
another state for the grade levels the district does not offer may
schedule the last day of school on any date permitted under
Subsection (a) or the law of the other state.
SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with the 2015-2016
school year.
SECTION 4. 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, 2015.