Bill Text: TX HB3455 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to separation of students based on gender for athletics teams sponsored or authorized by a public school.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-22 - Referred to Public Education [HB3455 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HB3455-Introduced.html
87R8190 KJE-D | ||
By: White | H.B. No. 3455 |
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relating to separation of students based on gender for athletics | ||
teams sponsored or authorized by a public school. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Chapter 33, Education Code, is | ||
amended by adding Sections 33.0815 and 33.0821 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 33.0815. SEPARATION OF ATHLETICS TEAMS BASED ON | ||
GENDER. (a) In this section, "athletic team" means an | ||
interscholastic, intramural, or other extracurricular athletic | ||
team. | ||
(b) A school district or open-enrollment charter school may | ||
not sponsor or authorize an athletic team for cross-country, golf, | ||
swimming, tennis, track-and-field, or wrestling that is designated | ||
for participation by both male and female students. | ||
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), an athletic team | ||
sponsored or authorized by a school district or open-enrollment | ||
charter school may not allow a student to participate in an athletic | ||
activity sponsored or authorized by the district or school that is | ||
designated for the gender opposite to the student's gender. | ||
(d) An athletic team may allow a female student to | ||
participate in: | ||
(1) a basketball or soccer athletic activity | ||
designated for male students, if a corresponding basketball or | ||
soccer athletic activity designated for female students is not | ||
offered; | ||
(2) a football athletic activity designated for | ||
middle, junior high, or high school students; or | ||
(3) a baseball athletic activity, if the student is | ||
not participating in any softball athletic activities designated | ||
for female students during the same time period. | ||
(e) An athletic team for team tennis designated for | ||
participation by both male and female students that is sponsored or | ||
authorized by a school district or open-enrollment charter school | ||
may not permit male students to qualify for positions on the team | ||
designated for female students or female students to qualify for | ||
positions on the team designated for male students. | ||
(f) An athletic team for wrestling that is sponsored by a | ||
school district or open-enrollment charter school may not permit | ||
male students to compete against female students in an athletic | ||
activity held in this state or in any other state in which both | ||
athletic teams designated for male students and athletic teams | ||
designated for female students are sponsored or authorized. | ||
(g) For purposes of this section, a student's gender is | ||
determined based on the gender identified on the student's birth | ||
certificate or, if the student's birth certificate is unavailable, | ||
a similar government document, as determined by commissioner rule. | ||
Sec. 33.0821. NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY FOR ATHLETICS. | ||
Except as provided by Section 33.0815, an interscholastic, | ||
intramural, or other extracurricular athletic team sponsored or | ||
authorized by a school district or open-enrollment charter school | ||
may not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, color, | ||
national origin, gender, or religion in holding tryouts for or | ||
selecting students to participate on the team. | ||
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. |