By: Ellis, Seliger S.B. No. 69
(In the Senate - Filed November 10, 2014; January 26, 2015,
read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
April 16, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 10,
Nays 1; April 16, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a notification requirement if a public school campus or
open-enrollment charter school does not have a nurse assigned to
the campus during all instructional hours.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 38.020 to read as follows:
Sec. 38.020. PARENTAL NOTIFICATION CONCERNING NURSES.
(a) In this section, "nurse" means a nurse licensed under Chapter
301, Occupations Code.
(b) A public school, including an open-enrollment charter
school, that does not have a full-time nurse or the equivalent of a
full-time nurse assigned to be present on the campus for more than
30 consecutive instructional days during the same school year shall
provide written notice of the absence of a nurse to the parent of or
other person standing in parental relation to each student enrolled
in the school.
(c) A school has the equivalent of a full-time nurse under
Subsection (b) if the school has two or more nurses assigned to the
school and those nurses' combined presence covers all regular
student instructional hours at a campus during the regular school
day.
(d) The principal of the school shall provide the notice
required by Subsection (b) not later than the 30th instructional
day after the first day the school does not have a full-time nurse
assigned to be present on the campus.
(e) The school shall:
(1) make a good faith effort to ensure that the notice
required by this section is provided in a bilingual form to any
parent or other person standing in parental relation whose primary
language is not English; and
(2) retain a copy of any notice provided under this
section.
(f) A school may satisfy the notice requirement under
Subsection (d) by posting the notice on the school's Internet
website. Notice posted under this subsection must be accessible
from the home page of the Internet website by use of not more than
three links.
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2015-2016
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, 2015.
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