Sec. 111.86.  HIGH SCHOOL COOPERATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM.  (a)  The university may establish and coordinate a cooperative program with one or more school districts under which high school students enrolled in those districts may be employed by the university to work at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on a part-time basis during the school year or on a part-time or full-time basis during school holidays or vacations.
(b)  The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center shall:
(1)  place, supervise, and evaluate each student who participates in the cooperative program;  and
(2)  ensure that the student performs work related to the study of science, mathematics, or engineering to encourage students to study those courses after high school graduation at an institution of higher education.
(c)  The school district in which a student who participates in the cooperative program is enrolled shall, in cooperation with the State Board of Education, determine the number, if any, and type of credits toward high school graduation the student may be given for participation in the program.  If it is determined that the student is to be given credit toward academic course requirements for high school graduation, the number and type of credits must be based on the type of work and the number of hours of work in which the student participates.
(d)  In establishing and coordinating the cooperative program, the university may use state funds appropriated for that purpose and gifts, grants, and donations solicited for that purpose.  The university shall use money it receives in accordance with this subsection to pay the costs associated with the cooperative program, including the wages of students who participate in the cooperative program.
(e)  A student who participates in the cooperative program during regular school hours is considered to be attending school for purposes of Section 25.085 during the time the student is required under the program to be and is at work for the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1533, Sec. 1, eff. June 19, 1999.