Bill Text: TX HB129 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to digital citizenship instruction in public schools.
Sponsorship: 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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