AGENTS AND RECORDS; ACADEMIC RECORDS REPOSITORY.

(a) The authorized or certified institutions may be required to provide a list of their agents to the board, and to maintain in a manner specified by the board the academic records of enrolled or former students, including records of credits and degrees awarded, and provide those records to the board on request.

(b) The board may maintain a repository for academic records from closed institutions that were exempt or were authorized to operate under a certificate of authorization or certificate of authority. The board may discontinue its maintenance of the repository if adequate funding is not provided for that maintenance. The academic records repository is considered to be a repository of last resort. If a closed institution is part of a larger educational system or corporation, that system or corporation shall maintain the academic records. If students of the closed institution transfer to another institution through an agreement between the institutions to continue the students' degree programs, the institution responsible for accepting the transferring students shall maintain those academic records.

Amendments to this section made by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 940 (S.B. 1781), take effect on September 1, 2017, but only if a specific appropriation is provided as described by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 940 (S.B. 1781), Sec. 9, which states: This Act takes effect only if a specific appropriation for the implementation of the Act is provided in a general appropriations act of the 85th Legislature.