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Senate Bill 1697 |
Senate Author: Paxton |
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Effective: 6-16-21 |
House Sponsor: King, Ken et al. |
Senate Bill 1697 amends the Education Code to establish parental options to elect for a student, as applicable, to repeat a grade level in the first through eighth grades, retake an applicable high school course, or repeat prekindergarten or kindergarten or enroll at either level in the year following a year in which the student would have been eligible to enroll. These options, as they relate to repetition of a grade level in the fourth through eighth grades or retaking a high school course, apply only to students who repeat courses from the previous year during the 2021‑2022 school year or who otherwise enroll during the 2021‑2022 school year.
Senate Bill 1697 requires a school district or charter school that disagrees with a parent's exercise of such an option to convene a retention committee for certain discussion and review of the student's academic information. A student may not be retained or retake a course on the basis of parental choice if the parent does not meet with the retention committee, but the district or charter school must abide by a parent's decision made after the parent has participated in the committee meeting, if applicable. The bill, among other provisions, sets out certain limitations on the repetition of high school courses and provides for the transfer of parental rights to a qualifying student who is 18 years of age or older. The bill's provisions establishing the parental options and related procedures apply to a home-rule school district, a campus or campus program charter, and an open-enrollment charter school as well as to a public school district.
Senate Bill 1697 requires the commissioner of education to adopt rules allowing a repeated grade or course to qualify for average daily attendance and authorizes the commissioner, based on a required Texas Education Agency study, to exclude students retained under the bill's provisions from being classified as at risk of dropping out of school for purposes of compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instruction.