Substituted for: House Bill No. 2878

By Ronnie Davis, McDaniel

AN ACT Affecting the administration and delivery of special education to children with disabilities, and to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Sections 49-10-101, 49-10-102 and 49-10-105.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-10-101(a)(1), is amended by deleting subsection (B) in its entirety and renumbering the remaining subsection accordingly.

SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-10-102(1), is amended by deleting subsection (B) in its entirety and substituting the following:

(B) "Child with disabilities" means a child with mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, specific learning disability, developmental delay, functional delay, and the intellectually gifted.

SECTION 3. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-10-105(b), is amended by deleting subsection (1) in its entirety and substituting the following:

(1) The advisory council shall be composed of a maximum of twenty-five (25) members, including parents of children with disabilities, individuals with disabilities, teachers, representatives of institutions of higher education that prepare special education and related services personnel; state and local education officials, administrators of programs for children with disabilities, representatives of other state agencies involved in the financing or delivery of related services to children with disabilities, representatives of private schools and public charter schools (if any); at least one representative of a vocational, community, or business organization concerned with the provision of transition services to children with disabilities, and representatives from the state juvenile and adult corrections agencies. The majority of the advisory council shall be individuals with disabilities or parents of children with disabilities.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 1998, the public welfare requiring it.