By: King S.B. No. 784
(In the Senate - Filed January 15, 2025; February 7, 2025,
read first time and referred to Committee on Education K-16;
April 24, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 10,
Nays 0; April 24, 2025, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the transfer of certain public school students who are
children of peace officers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 12A.004(a), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) A local innovation plan may not provide for the
exemption of a district designated as a district of innovation from
the following provisions of this title:
(1) a state or federal requirement applicable to an
open-enrollment charter school operating under Subchapter D,
Chapter 12;
(2) Subchapters A, C, D, and E, Chapter 11, except that
a district may be exempt from Sections 11.1511(b)(5) and (14) and
Section 11.162;
(3) transfers of students who are the children of
peace officers under Section 25.0344;
(4) [(3)] state curriculum and graduation
requirements adopted under Chapter 28; and
(5) [(4)] academic and financial accountability and
sanctions under Chapters 39 and 39A.
SECTION 2. Section 25.0344, Education Code, as added by
Chapter 322 (H.B. 1959), Acts of the 88th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2023, is amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding
Subsections (e) and (f) to read as follows:
(b) On request of a peace officer who is a parent of or
person standing in parental relation to a student, the board of
trustees of a school district or the board's designee shall
transfer the student to:
(1) another district campus; or
(2) any other [to another] school district in this
state, regardless of whether the sending district and the receiving
district have entered into [under] an agreement under Section
25.035.
(e) Notwithstanding any other law, both the sending
district and the receiving district must approve a transfer under
this section without exception.
(f) A school district may not charge a tuition fee under
Section 25.038 to a student who transfers to the district under this
section.
SECTION 3. Section 12A.004(a), Education Code, as amended
by this Act, applies only to a local innovation plan adopted or
renewed on or after the effective date of this Act. A local
innovation plan adopted or renewed before the effective date of
this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the plan was
adopted or renewed, and the former law is continued in effect for
that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act applies beginning with the 2025-2026
school year.
SECTION 5. 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, 2025.
* * * * *