Bill Text: TX HB683 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Engrossed

Texas House Bill 683 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Relating to the exemption of tuition and laboratory fees at public institutions of higher education for certain paramedics.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-4)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2023-05-12 - Reported from s/c favorably w/o amendments [HB683 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB683-Engrossed.html

	88R388 CXP-F

	By: Cole, Guillen, Turner, Dutton, Howard,	H.B. No. 683
	et al.



	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to the exemption of tuition and laboratory fees at public
	institutions of higher education for certain paramedics.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
	amended by adding Section 54.3532 to read as follows:
	Sec. 54.3532. PARAMEDICS ENROLLED IN CERTAIN COURSES. (a)
	The governing board of an institution of higher education shall
	exempt from the payment of tuition and laboratory fees any student
	enrolled in one or more courses offered as part of an emergency
	medical services curriculum who is employed as a paramedic by a
	political subdivision of this state.
	(b) An exemption provided under this section does not apply
	to deposits that may be required in the nature of security for the
	return or proper care of property loaned for the use of students.
	(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a student who for a
	semester or term at an institution of higher education receives an
	exemption provided under this section may continue to receive the
	exemption for a subsequent semester or term at any institution only
	if the student makes satisfactory academic progress toward a degree
	or certificate at that institution as determined by the institution
	for purposes of financial aid.
	(d) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the exemption provided
	under this section does not apply to any amount of additional
	tuition the institution elects to charge a resident undergraduate
	student under Section 54.014(a) or (f).
	(e) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the exemption provided
	under this section does not apply to any amount of tuition the
	institution charges a graduate student in excess of the amount of
	tuition charged to similarly situated graduate students because the
	student has a number of semester credit hours of doctoral work in
	excess of the applicable number provided by Section 61.059(l)(1) or
	(2).
	(f) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the governing board of
	an institution of higher education is not required to provide an
	exemption under this section for a course offered exclusively
	through distance education to a number of students enrolled in the
	course in excess of 20 percent of the maximum student enrollment
	designated by the institution for that course.
	(g) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
	adopt:
	(1) rules governing the granting or denial of an
	exemption provided under this section, including rules:
	(A) prescribing the educational attainment or
	level of certification necessary to qualify for an exemption as a
	paramedic;
	(B) relating to the determination of a student's
	eligibility for an exemption; and
	(C) relating to the exclusion from the exemption
	under Subsection (f) of a distance education course, including
	prescribing the maximum number of distance education courses that
	may be excluded from the exemption under that subsection; and
	(2) a uniform listing of degree programs covered by
	the exemption provided under this section.
	SECTION 2. (a) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating
	Board shall adopt the rules required by Section 54.3532, Education
	Code, as added by this Act, as soon as practicable after the
	effective date of this Act.
	(b) Section 54.3532, Education Code, as added by this Act,
	applies beginning with tuition and laboratory fees charged for the
	2023 fall semester. Tuition and laboratory fees charged for an
	academic period before that semester are governed by the law in
	effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the
	former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
	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, 2023.