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House Bill 1751 |
House Author: Patrick et al. |
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Effective: 6-14-13 |
Senate Sponsor: Van de Putte |
House Bill 1751 amends the Education Code to replace the educator excellence awards program with the educator excellence innovation program and to set out the new program's purposes. The bill also replaces the previous program's fund with a new fund from which the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is to award grants to school districts on a competitive basis and in an amount determined by TEA in accordance with commissioner of education rule, rather than as a per capita distribution among qualifying districts as provided under the previous program. The bill requires TEA, depending on the amount of money available for distribution from the fund, to approve plans that most comprehensively and innovatively address the program's purposes so that the various plans' effectiveness can be compared and evaluated.
House Bill 1751 repeals statutory provisions relating to the authorized uses of payments awarded under the previous program and instead authorizes a school district to use grant funds only to carry out the program's purposes in accordance with the district's local educator excellence innovation plan. The bill authorizes a district to apply to the commissioner for a waiver to exempt the district or district campuses from certain statutory provisions relating to educator appraisals and incentives and staff development and requires the waiver application to demonstrate that the waiver is necessary to carry out the program's purposes in accordance with the district's plan. The bill requires a waiver application, before being submitted, to be approved by a vote of a majority of the members of the school district board of trustees and a majority of the educators employed at each campus for which the waiver is sought. The bill requires the commissioner to grant or deny an application based on standards adopted by commissioner rule.