87(3) HB 25 - Enrolled version - Bill Text

	H.B.  No.  25

	AN ACT
	relating to requiring public school students to compete in
	interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION  1.    The legislature finds that:
	(1)    historically, boys participate in interscholastic
	athletics at a higher rate than girls, and a noticeable disparity
	continues between the athletic participation rates of students who
	are girls and students who are boys in University Interscholastic
	League member schools;
	(2)    courts have recognized a legitimate and important
	governmental interest in redressing past discrimination against
	girls in athletics on the basis of sex and promoting equality of
	athletic opportunity between the sexes under Title IX of the
	Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. Section 1681 et seq.), a
	federal civil rights statute; and
	(3)    courts have recognized that classification by sex
	is the only feasible classification to promote the governmental
	interest of providing for interscholastic athletic opportunities
	for girls.
	SECTION  2.    The purpose of this Act is to further the
	governmental interest of ensuring that sufficient interscholastic
	athletic opportunities remain available for girls to remedy past
	discrimination on the basis of sex.
	SECTION  3.    Subchapter D, Chapter 33, Education Code, is
	amended by adding Section 33.0834 to read as follows:
	Sec.  33.0834.    INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC COMPETITION BASED
	ON BIOLOGICAL SEX. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an
	interscholastic athletic team sponsored or authorized by a school
	district or open-enrollment charter school may not allow a student
	to compete in an interscholastic athletic competition sponsored or
	authorized by the district or school that is designated for the
	biological sex opposite to the student's biological sex as
	correctly stated on:
	(1)    the student's official birth certificate, as
	described by Subsection (c); or
	(2)    if the student's official birth certificate
	described by Subdivision (1) is unobtainable, another government
	record.
	(b)    An interscholastic athletic team described by
	Subsection (a) may allow a female student to compete in an
	interscholastic athletic competition that is designated for male
	students if a corresponding interscholastic athletic competition
	designated for female students is not offered or available.
	(c)    For purposes of this section, a statement of a student's
	biological sex on the student's official birth certificate is
	considered to have correctly stated the student's biological sex
	only if the statement was:
	(1)    entered at or near the time of the student's birth;
	or
	(2)    modified to correct any type of scrivener or
	clerical error in the student's biological sex.
	(d)    The University Interscholastic League shall adopt rules
	to implement this section, provided that the rules must be approved
	by the commissioner in accordance with Section 33.083(b). The
	rules must ensure compliance with state and federal law regarding
	the confidentiality of student medical information, including
	Chapter 181, Health and Safety Code, and the Health Insurance
	Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. Section 1320d
	et seq.).
	SECTION  4.    This Act applies to any interscholastic athletic
	competition sponsored or authorized by a school district or
	open-enrollment charter school that occurs on or after the
	effective date of this Act.
	SECTION  5.    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 on the 91st day after the last day of the
	legislative session.
	______________________________	______________________________
	President of the Senate	Speaker of the House
	I certify that H.B. No. 25 was passed by the House on October
	14, 2021, by the following vote:    Yeas 76, Nays 54, 1 present, not
	voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
	No. 25 on October 17, 2021, by the following vote:    Yeas 76, Nays
	61, 1 present, not voting.