BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1603

By: Huberty

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Individual graduation committees support students who have failed to perform satisfactorily on end-of-course tests and provide them with an alternative path toward graduation. These committees allow students facing language barriers, severe testing anxiety, or learning disabilities to stay on the path to graduation and are an effective way to evaluate students. However, these committees have been implemented on a temporary basis as state law authorizing their implementation is usually subject to expiration. H.B. 1603 seeks to make individual graduation committees a permanent fixture of Texas' public school system.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1603 amends the Education Code to extend the use of individual graduation committees and other alternatives to certain end-of-course testing requirements by removing and repealing certain expiration dates. The bill repeals provisions setting the following statutory provisions to expire September 1, 2023:

· provisions relating to a graduation qualification procedure established by the commissioner of education for certain students who entered ninth grade before the 2011‑2012 school year;

· provisions establishing an alternative method of awarding a high school diploma by means of an individual graduation committee review; and

· PEIMS reporting requirements associated with the use and outcomes of individual graduation committees.

H.B. 1603 amends the Education Code to remove the September 1, 2023, expiration date from the following statutory provisions:

· a provision establishing that a student who has failed to perform satisfactorily after retaking an end-of-course test for Algebra I or English II but receives a score of proficient on the Texas Success Initiative diagnostic test for the corresponding subject satisfies the high school diploma eligibility requirement concerning that end-of-course test; and

· a provision authorizing the award of a high school diploma to a student who has failed to perform satisfactorily on end-of-course tests if the student has qualified for graduation on the basis of an individual graduation committee review.

H.B. 1603 repeals the following provisions of the Education Code:

· Section 28.02541(g);

· Section 28.0258(l); and

· Section 28.0259(e).

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2021.