|
Senate Bill 2258 |
Senate Author: Zaffirini |
|
Effective: 6-19-09 |
House Sponsor: Hochberg |
Previous law required the commissioner of education and the commissioner of higher education jointly to establish a pilot program to award grants to participating campuses for summer programs of intensive academic instruction to promote college and workforce readiness to students at risk of dropping out of school or college. Senate Bill 2258 amends the Education Code to provide separately for two pilot programs for public school students and college students at risk of dropping out of school or college, respectively. The bill requires the commissioner of education to establish a pilot program to award grants to campuses providing intensive academic instruction during the period in which school is recessed for the summer to at-risk public school students and requires the coordinating board to develop a pilot program to award grants to colleges and universities for intensive programs designed to address the needs of students at risk of dropping out of college. The bill authorizes the coordinating board to award a grant to an institution of higher education for such an intensive program for at-risk college students under the same conditions and criteria previously applicable to the award of grants for intensive academic instruction to facilitate a student's transition from high school to college when such programs were included in the predecessor pilot program jointly established by the two commissioners.
The bill also requires the coordinating board by rule to develop a higher education bridge program in the subject area of social science, in addition to the bridge programs in the subject areas of mathematics, science, or English language arts, and clarifies that the purpose of such development is to increase student success by reducing the need for developmental education. The bill removes a provision requiring that the coordinating board by rule develop financial assistance programs for educationally disadvantaged students who take college entrance and college readiness tests.