| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the notice required regarding the requirement to submit |
|
|
a financial aid application as a condition of high school |
|
|
graduation for public school students. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Sections 28.0256(a), (c), and (d), Education |
|
|
Code, are amended to read as follows: |
|
|
(a) Before graduating from high school, each student must |
|
|
complete and submit a free application for federal student aid |
|
|
(FAFSA) or a Texas application for state financial aid (TASFA), |
|
|
except as otherwise provided by Subsection (b). |
|
|
(c) A school district or open-enrollment charter school |
|
|
shall adopt a form to be used for purposes of Subsection (b). The |
|
|
form must [be]: |
|
|
(1) be approved by the agency; [and] |
|
|
(2) provide the student or the student's parent or |
|
|
other person standing in parental relation, as applicable, the |
|
|
opportunity to decline to complete and submit a financial aid |
|
|
application, as provided by Subsection (b); and |
|
|
(3) be made available in English, Spanish, and any |
|
|
other language spoken by a majority of the students enrolled in a |
|
|
bilingual education or special language program under Subchapter B, |
|
|
Chapter 29, in the district or school. |
|
|
(d) If a school counselor notifies a school district whether |
|
|
a student has complied with this section for purposes of |
|
|
determining whether the student meets high school graduation |
|
|
requirements under Section 28.025, the school counselor may only |
|
|
indicate whether the student has complied with this section and may |
|
|
not indicate the manner in which the student complied. A school |
|
|
counselor may not indicate that a student has not complied with this |
|
|
section if the school district or open-enrollment charter school |
|
|
fails to provide the form adopted under Subsection (c) to the |
|
|
student or the student's parent or other person standing in |
|
|
parental relation to the student. |
|
|
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2021-2022 |
|
|
school year. |
|
|
SECTION 3. 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 September 1, 2021. |