TO:	Honorable Brad Buckley, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB11 by Dutton (relating to the rights, and certification of public school educators, including financial and other assistance provided to public schools by the Texas Education Agency related to public school educators, methods of reading instruction in public schools, certain allotments providing for compensation for certain public school teachers under the Foundation School Program, and rules adopted by the State Board for Educator Certification.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to collect data from school districts and charter schools for the recruitment and retention of teachers.

The bill would require that the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) use negotiated rulemaking procedures before the board proposes a rule and would be required to determine if it is necessary to appoint to the negotiated rulemaking committee a person to represent the persons affected by the proposed rule. SBEC would be required to waive certain teacher certification and examination fees for the first administration of an examination to the person; and to pay a fee assessed by the vendor for administering the examination.

The bill would add an "acknowledged" designation to existing Local Optional Teacher Designation System designations, change the designation of national board certified teachers to "nationally board certified" rather than "recognized", and add technical assistance requirements for TEA.

The bill would establish the local optional teacher designation system grant program. From funds appropriated or available, TEA would develop and administer a grant program with money and technical assistance for districts and open-enrollment charter schools to expand implementation of local optional teacher designations system and increase the number of teachers eligible for a designation. Grants that would be awarded under this section would be required to meet the needs of individual school districts and enable regional leadership capacity. The bill would allow the Commissioner to adopt rules to establish and administer the grant program.
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The bill would establish the Employed Retiree Teacher Reimbursement Grant Program to reimburse school districts or charters for the increased contributions to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) associated with hiring certain retired teachers.

The bill would task TEA to develop training and provide technical assistance to school districts and open enrollment charter schools regarding strategic compensation, staffing, and scheduling; creating programs that encourage high school students or others to become teachers; share programs or strategies school leaders may use to establish behavior expectations while positively supporting students; and provide grants to school districts and open enrollment charter schools to implement these Teacher Quality Assistance initiatives.

The bill would also task TEA to develop and maintain a technical assistance program to support school districts and charters in studying how district or school staff and student schedules require non-instructional duties for teachers and how professional development requirements for teachers impact amount of time teachers work per week, refining schedules for students and staff to ensure teachers have time to fulfill job duties during normal work hours while supporting all students, and to periodically make Teacher Time Study best practices publicly available.

The bill would establish the Texas Teacher Residency Partnership Program to create a teacher mentor program between schools and educator preparation programs (EPPs). TEA would be required to provide technical assistance and support to participating schools and EPPs.

The bill would amend TEC 29.153(b) to include children of classroom teachers as eligible for prekindergarten in the school district that offers a prekindergarten class under this section.

The bill would amend the associated allotment amounts under the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA). 

The bill would amend the Mentor Program Allotment to entitle districts to an allotment if a district implements a mentoring program under Section 21.458, TEC, and if the mentor teachers complete a mentor training program developed by the agency. The bill would add a section that would entitle districts to $2,000 for each teacher with less than two years of experience would participate in the mentoring program. The allotment would be capped at 40 teachers per school district, or by appropriation.

The bill would establish the Residency Partnership Allotment for the Texas Teacher Residency Partnership Program. For each partnership resident employed at the district in a residency position under Subchapter R, Ch. 21, the district would be entitled to an allotment equal to the base amount of $22,000 increased by the high needs and rural factor, as determined under Subsection (c), to an amount not to exceed $42,000. Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) and Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) would be entitled to the allotment under this section. The bill would also require districts to reimburse teachers for certification fees incurred while obtaining special education and bilingual certification. Using funds appropriated or available for the purpose, the bill would require TEA to provide 10.0 percent of the amount allocated for a partnership resident to the resident's partnership educator preparation program to support operating costs of the residency program.

Methodology

This analysis assumes that TEA would require an additional 41.0 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions to implement the provisions of the bill. Costs for these staff, including salaries, wages, benefits, and operating costs, would be approximately $4.9 million in fiscal year 2024 and $5.1 million in fiscal years 2025-28.  

The agency estimates that provisions of the bill requiring the waiver of certain examination and certification fees, including vendor costs for administration, would cost $17.5 million in fiscal year 2024 and $18.0 million in fiscal year 2025, increasing to $23.1 million in fiscal year 2028. 

TEA estimates that providing grants to districts and building regional leadership capacity for local optional teacher designation systems would cost $30.0 million annually.

The amount appropriated to the Employed Retiree Teacher Reimbursement Grant Program is unspecified, and the legislature may restrict eligibility for the program by appropriation; therefore, costs cannot be determined. As an illustrative example of the potential cost, in fiscal year 2022 TRS received a total of approximately $40.0 million for retirement program surcharges and $11.0 million for TRS-Care surcharges, including both employee and employer surcharges for all positions. The bill would not make changes to the amount of the TRS retirement contribution, just the source of the funding; therefore, TRS assumes there would be no significant impact to the agency from this provision.  

The bill would direct TEA to develop training and technical assistance to school districts and charters regarding strategic compensation, staffing, and scheduling; programs that encourage high school students or others to become teachers; and programs or strategies school leaders may use to establish behavior expectations while positively supporting students. The agency would also provide grants to schools to implement these initiatives. TEA estimates that the development of strategic scheduling, staffing, and compensation modules to support technical assistance would cost $1,500,000 in fiscal year 2024, and grants for delivery of technical assistance would cost $2,250,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $4,500,000 annually in fiscal years 2025-28. Grants to LEAs to support implementation of strategic staffing, scheduling, and compensation systems would cost $4,000,000 annually in fiscal years 2025-28. Technical assistance grants to support school leaders develop school culture routines and discipline systems would cost $3,000,000 annually in fiscal years 2024-28. Technical assistance grants to LEAs to establish grow-your-own partnerships would cost $1,500,000 annually in fiscal years 2024-28. The development of teacher leader and co-teacher training modules would cost $500,000 annually in fiscal years 2024-25 and $100,000 annually in fiscal years 2026-28. Technical assistance grants to LEAs to support the development of teacher leadership roles would cost $1,250,000 in fiscal years 2024-28. 

To administer the Teacher Time Study, TEA assumes a cost of $500,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $50,000 annually in fiscal years 2025-28 would be required for the development and implementation of the study. The agency assumes that $750,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $1.5 million annually in fiscal years 2025-28 would be required for technical assistance to LEAs. The agency assumes $3.0 million annually in fiscal years 2025-28 would be required to provide grants to LEAs under this section. 

TEA assumes Texas Strategic Staffing technical assistance support could be provided through funding to all 20 education service centers (ESCs) through two full-time positions at each ESC. To implement this provision, TEA assumes 20 positions would be needed in FY 24, as the 20 additional positions are currently ESSER funded through Spring 2024. Beginning in FY25, and in subsequent years, funding would be needed for 40 total positions. Additionally, three statewide leads would be needed to support the service quality and sustainability. The agency estimates total funding of $3,540,000 in FY24 and $6,540,000 in subsequent years.

To support EPPs to meet the requirements for a qualified residency program, TEA would provide grants to EPPs to pay for technical assistance and other transformation supports. TEA would run an application process to vet and identify technical assistance providers who have a track record of supporting EPPs in successful transformation to residency models and would require EPPs to partner with those vetted providers for use of grant funds. Based on current market rates for EPP technical assistance, $200,000 per EPP with an anticipated 10 EPPs engaged in transformation annually would require total funding of $2,000,000 annually for FY24 and subsequent years. Additionally, the agency assumes $10,000 annually in fiscal years 2024-­28 would be required to update data tools provided to EPPs and LEAs to support implementation of the program.

To oversee the development of statewide mentor training, the agency proposes utilizing the ESCs. The total costs for the content development of the training would be $500,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $500,000 in fiscal year 2025. The agency would need to develop teacher training implementation support, which would include field site implementation support across several regions of the state. The anticipated costs of this would equal $1,500,000 in both fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

The bill would change sections of the FSP to modify allotment amounts under the Teacher Incentive Allotment and the Mentor Program Allotment; and would create the new Residency Partnership Allotment. It would also amend TEC 29.153(b) to include children of classroom teachers as eligible for pre­kindergarten in the school district that offers a prekindergarten class under this section. This analysis assumes that the cost to the FSP would be $100.8 million in fiscal year 2024, $244.7 million in fiscal year 2025, increasing to $741.9 million in fiscal year 2028. The cost to the FSP includes estimated decreases in Recapture Payments-Attendance Credits of $18.1 million in fiscal year 2024, $44.2 million in fiscal year 2025, increasing to $144.9 million in fiscal year 2028. The decrease in recapture is reflected as a savings in the table above because recapture is appropriated as a method of finance for the FSP in the General Appropriations Act. 

Technology

This analysis assumes that TEA would incur various onetime and ongoing technology costs to implement the provisions of the bill.

The cost estimate to develop and implement the requirements of the bill in the Texas Student Data System (TSDS) would be $2,327,178 in fiscal year 2024. This analysis assumes that TEA would incur Data Center Service (DCS) costs for TSDS, including a onetime hardware/software cost of $39,532 and an annual ongoing cost of $116,756.

The cost estimate to develop and implement the requirements in the TREx system would be $1,359 in fiscal year 2024 and $4,076 in fiscal year 2025.   

The cost estimate to develop and implement the requirements in the Educator Certification Online System and Teacher Preparation Data Model would be $132,292 in fiscal year 2024 and $396,875 in fiscal year 2025.

The cost estimate to develop and implement the requirements in the Foundation School Program application would be $58,875 in fiscal year 2024 and $176,624 in fiscal year 2025.

The cost estimate to develop and implement the requirements in the Teacher Incentive Allotment SCOMS application would be $542,293 in fiscal year 2024 and $1,626,878 in fiscal year 2025. This analysis assumes that TEA would incur Data Center Service (DCS) costs, including a onetime hardware/software cost of $11,532 and an annual ongoing cost of $108,756. are incorporated in staffing costs reflected in the Methodology section above.

This analysis assumes that TEA would also require 5 FTEs, included in the previous section's total FTEs and associated costs, to provide ongoing support and maintenance across applications.   

Local Government Impact

TEA assumes LEAs may incur costs to make changes to their local optional teacher designation systems to reflect the addition of a new designation under the bill. LEAs may also incur costs related to reporting teacher retention and recruitment data.