Bill Text: TX HB129 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to digital citizenship instruction in public schools.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-05-26 - Placed on intent calendar [HB129 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HB129-Comm_Sub.html
By: González of El Paso, et al. | H.B. No. 129 | |
(Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini) | ||
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 21, 2021; | ||
May 10, 2021, read first time and referred to Committee on | ||
Education; May 24, 2021, reported adversely, with favorable | ||
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 6, Nays 3; | ||
May 24, 2021, sent to printer.) | ||
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 129 | By: Menéndez |
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relating to digital citizenship instruction in public schools. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 28.002(z), Education Code, is amended to | ||
read as follows: | ||
(z) The State Board of Education by rule shall require each | ||
school district to incorporate instruction in digital citizenship | ||
into the district's curriculum, including information regarding | ||
the potential criminal consequences of cyberbullying, and require | ||
students enrolled in grade level six to complete instruction in | ||
digital citizenship as part of the district's social studies | ||
curriculum. In this subsection: | ||
(1) "Cyberbullying" has the meaning assigned by | ||
Section 37.0832. | ||
(2) "Digital citizenship" means the standards of | ||
appropriate, responsible, and healthy online behavior, including: | ||
(A) the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, | ||
create, and act on all forms of digital communication; | ||
(B) digital ethics, etiquette, respectful | ||
discourse with people who have differing opinions, safety, | ||
security, digital footprint, and the identification of rhetoric | ||
that incites violence; | ||
(C) cyberbullying prevention and response; and | ||
(D) the importance of the right to freedom of | ||
speech contained in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the | ||
United States, including: | ||
(i) the central role that the right to | ||
freedom of speech has in the history of the United States; and | ||
(ii) the applicability of protections for | ||
freedom of speech for online interaction. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2021-2022 | ||
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, 2021. | ||
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