TITLE: Relating to a temporary exemption for school districts from the obligation to comply with certain unfunded state educational mandates.

SUMMARY: Relating to a temporary exemption for school districts from the obligation to comply with certain unfunded state educational mandates.

FULL TEXT:
AN ACT relating to a temporary exemption for school districts from the obligation to comply with certain unfunded state educational mandates. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 11, Education Code, is amended by adding Section 11.004 to read as follows: Sec. 11.004. TEMPORARY EXEMPTION FROM CERTAIN UNFUNDED STATE EDUCATIONAL MANDATES. (a) In this section, "state educational mandate" means a statutory provision the implementation of which requires an expenditure by a school district that would not have been required in the absence of the statutory provision or a rule adopted under that provision. (b) A school district is exempt from a state educational mandate for which the legislature, for the state fiscal biennium, has not appropriated money estimated to be sufficient to meet the expenditure required by the mandate for that biennium unless the mandate is necessary either to comply with federal law or to meet eligibility standards for a federal entitlement that is sufficient to meet the full expenditure required by the mandate, and the federal law specifically contemplates action by a district for compliance or eligibility. (c) This section expires September 1, 2013. SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.