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Several of the bills I authored this legislative session came from suggestions that I got from constituents.
HB 457 - Computing of dropout rates for school accountability. (Effective Immediately) A student who resides in a detention, correctional, or treatment center is considered a resident of the school district in which the facility is located. When the juvenile is released from the facility and does not enroll in school in his hometown, the school district which serves the facility is charged with a dropout for the purpose of determining an accountability rating. Often, this unfairly prevents a school from achieving a "recognized" or "exemplary" rating from the State since they are held accountable for these students. Locally, the Grayson County Juvenile Detention Center houses many students from out of the district. Consequently, these juveniles are enrolled in Sherman ISD while they are at the detention center. Rodney Hutto, Superintendent of Sherman ISD, became concerned as his school was being charged with dropouts on out-of-district and out-out-of-county students who failed to enroll in school after they left the center. He alerted me to the situation to see if the problem could be alleviated legislatively.
HB 457 amends the Education Code by specifying that an out-of-district student who is released from a facility and who fails to enroll in school will not be considered as a dropout of the school district serving the facility.
HB 2087 & 3351 - Control of methamphetamine. Not only is methamphetamine a deadly drug for users, its volatile manufacturing process is dangerous. Explosions and fires that can result from illegal meth labs can injure or kill people, including the law enforcement officials raiding the lab. Meth labs in hotels and motels can injure occupants of adjoining rooms. The Grayson County Sheriff's Department, along with local police departments, DEA officials and members of the U.S. Attorney's office suggested legislation to assist with the problem of meth labs.
HB 2087, effective immediately, imposes civil liability on methamphetamine manufacturers who cause injury directly or indirectly to property or another person due to exposure to meth or the manufacturing process.
HB 3351 (Effective Immediately) - If a lab is raided before the meth is "cooked", it is sometimes hard to prove a violation of law. HB 3351, which I joint-authored, would make it a criminal offense to possess or transport certain precursor chemicals. Possession of these chemicals, such as anhydrous ammonia, used in the manufacture of methamphetamine will be unlawful if the person had intent to unlawfully manufacture a controlled substance.
State Representative Ron Clark
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768-2910
(903) 893-9426 * (512) 463-0474
(512) 475-3767 (fax)
ron.clark@house.state.tx.us
http://www.grayson.edu/district62/RonClark.html
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