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Senate Bill 2 |
Senate Author: Patrick et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
House Sponsor: Aycock |
Senate Bill 2 amends provisions of the Education Code relating to certain charter schools. The bill requires an independent school district board that intends to sell, lease, or allow use of an unused or underused district facility for a non-district purpose to give each open-enrollment charter school located within the district the opportunity to make an offer to purchase, lease, or use the facility before offering the facility for sale or lease or to any other entity.
Senate Bill 2 prohibits an independent school district from requiring a campus or campus program that has been converted from an existing district campus and granted a district charter to pay rent for or to purchase a facility in order to use it or from requiring such a campus or campus program or an open-enrollment charter school to pay for any district service provided under a contract between the district and the campus, program, or charter school an amount greater than the district's actual costs of providing the service.
Senate Bill 2 requires a public vote by a school district board or the governing body of a home-rule school district for that body to grant or deny a petition by parents and teachers for a campus or campus program charter; authorizes a district board or governing body to grant a district charter to one or more low-performing campuses serving in total up to 15 percent of the district's prior year student enrollment and, although those campuses are considered open‑enrollment charter schools, excludes those charters from the limit on the number of open‑enrollment charter schools; requires a district board that grants a campus or campus program charter to enter into a performance contract with the campus's or program's chief operating officer and sets the charter's term at 10 years unless academic goals specified in the contract are met before the end of that period; and authorizes a campus or campus program charter to provide for the campus to be a neighborhood school, with the school's principal or equivalent given certain discretion in managing the school's funding.
Senate Bill 2 authorizes a school district to contract with another district or an open‑enrollment charter school for services at a campus charter and makes a district or charter school employee providing those services eligible for membership in and benefits from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) if the employee would be eligible for membership and benefits if holding the same position at the district or charter school.
Senate Bill 2 makes a campus or program that is granted a district charter subject to public school requirements for financial accountability and to procedures for challenging an adverse academic or financial accountability rating. The bill requires an employee of a charter holder who is employed on a campus or in a program granted a campus or campus program charter and who qualifies for TRS membership to be covered in the same manner and to the same extent as a qualified school district employee who is employed on or in a regularly operating campus or program. The bill requires each campus or campus program charter to provide that the charter's continuation is contingent on satisfactory financial performance in accordance with applicable statutory provisions.
Senate Bill 2 transfers authority to grant a charter for an open-enrollment charter school from the State Board of Education (SBOE) to the commissioner of education and sets out a six‑year schedule for increasing the cap on the number of open-enrollment charter schools from 215 to 305. The bill adds to the conditions that must be met for a charter to be granted and requires the commissioner to notify the SBOE of each charter the commissioner proposes to grant. The bill provides that a proposal takes effect if the SBOE does not oppose the grant within 90 days after receiving notice.
The bill prohibits the commissioner from granting more than one charter for an open‑enrollment charter school to any charter holder and authorizes the commissioner to consolidate charters for an open-enrollment charter school held by multiple charter holders into a single charter held by a single charter holder with the written consent to the terms of consolidation by or at the request of each charter holder affected by the consolidation.
Senate Bill 2 authorizes a charter holder having an accreditation status of accredited and at least 50 percent of its student population in grades assessed under the state's standardized testing program or at least 50 percent of the students in the grades assessed having been enrolled for at least three school years to establish, without the commissioner's approval, one or more new open-enrollment charter school campuses under an existing charter held by the charter holder if certain conditions are met. The bill sets the initial term of a charter granted for an open‑enrollment charter school at five years and excludes a charter for an open-enrollment dropout recovery school from the limit on the number of open-enrollment charter schools.
Senate Bill 2 authorizes the commissioner to grant a charter for an open-enrollment charter school to certain proven high performing entities, with the initial term of the charter set at five years. The bill provides for the preparation of an annual report concerning the performance of open-enrollment charter schools by authorizer compared to campus charters and matched traditional campuses in a format that enables the public to distinguish and compare public school performance by school type.
The bill authorizes the commissioner to grant up to five charters for open-enrollment charter schools intended primarily to serve special education students and excludes those charters from the limit on the number of open-enrollment charter schools if at least 50 percent of the students are eligible for special education services.
Senate Bill 2 revises the conditions under which an open-enrollment charter school retains authority to operate under the charter to reflect changes made by the bill and makes an open-enrollment charter school subject to public school accountability provisions relating to procedures for challenging an adverse academic or financial accountability rating and to statutory provisions relating to parental rights and responsibilities.
Senate Bill 2, with certain exceptions, makes a provision relating to school district employment policies that establishes the applicability of certain antinepotism laws to a school district superintendent and each member of a district board of trustees applicable to an open‑enrollment charter school as though the school's governing body were a district board and to the school's educational leader and chief executive officer as though that person were a district superintendent.
Senate Bill 2 removes a provision authorizing the SBOE to approve or deny an application based on criteria the SBOE adopts and instead bases approval or denial by the commissioner on documented evidence collected through the application review process, merit, and other criteria as adopted by the commissioner, which must include criteria relating to the applicant's capability to carry out the charter responsibilities and the likelihood that the applicant will operate a school of high quality. The bill requires the commissioner to give priority to applications for an open-enrollment charter school campus in the attendance zone of a school district campus assigned an unacceptable performance rating for the two preceding school years.
Senate Bill 2 revises the required contents of each charter for an open-enrollment charter school to reflect certain of the bill's provisions. The bill sets out the process by which the charter for an open-enrollment charter school may be renewed or denied renewal or may expire. The bill removes provisions relating to the bases on which a charter may be modified, placed on probation, or denied renewal and provisions relating to the procedure for modifying, placing on probation, or denying renewal of the charter. The bill instead requires the commissioner either to revoke the charter or to reconstitute the charter holder's governing body on those same bases, adds to the bases for revocation or reconstitution, and requires the commissioner to adopt an informal procedure to be used for revocation or reconstitution.
Senate Bill 2 requires the commissioner to develop and adopt performance frameworks that establish standards by which to measure an open-enrollment charter school's performance and separate, specific performance frameworks by which to measure the performance of an open-enrollment charter school that is registered under the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) alternative education accountability procedures for evaluation. The bill requires the commissioner to evaluate the performance of each open-enrollment charter school annually based on the applicable performance frameworks but prohibits a school's performance on a performance framework from being considered for purposes of a charter renewal or revocation.
Senate Bill 2 authorizes an open-enrollment charter school, following a review of a person's criminal history record information, to employ the person as a teacher or educational aide on the same bases as those on which a school district could employ the person as a teacher or educational aide or to employ the person in a position other than teacher or educational aide if a school district could employ the person in the other position.
Senate Bill 2 requires a majority of the members of the governing body of an open‑enrollment charter school or of a charter holder to be qualified voters and requires an open‑enrollment charter school to list the names of the governing body's members on the home page of the school's Internet website.
Senate Bill 2 requires each TEA employee assigned responsibility related to granting charters for open-enrollment charter schools or providing oversight or monitoring of charter holders or open-enrollment charter schools to undergo training on charter school authorization, oversight, and monitoring not later than October 1, 2013. The bill specifies that property purchased or leased with state funds received by a charter holder after September 1, 2001, and held in trust by the charter holder for the benefit of the students of the open-enrollment charter school is state property. The bill requires a person employed as a principal or a teacher by an open-enrollment charter school to hold a bachelor's degree.
Senate Bill 2 requires an open-enrollment charter school to post on the school's Internet website the salary of the school's superintendent or the administrator serving as educational leader and chief executive officer. The bill makes statutory provisions requiring the board of trustees of each school district to provide for the daily recitation of the pledges of allegiance to the U.S. flag and the Texas flag and the observance of one minute of silence in public schools applicable to the governing body of each open-enrollment charter school.
Senate Bill 2 requires the commissioner to adopt procedural rules for a challenge made by a school district or open-enrollment charter school with regard to a decision by the commissioner either to close the district or a district campus or the charter school or to pursue alternative management of a district campus or the charter school.
Senate Bill 2 amends the Human Resources Code to make conforming changes relating to the grant of a school charter for certain juvenile justice facilities and amends the Local Government Code to require the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school to take action to ensure that the school's annual financial statement is made available as required by law and is posted continuously on the school's Internet website.