Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 702 amends the Education Code to increase public school accountability for student achievement by broadening the definition of "students at risk of dropping out of school," expanding compensatory education programs for those students, adding additional academic excellence indicators and school district and campus performance measures relating to the performance of those additional groups of students, and increasing reporting requirements for district and campus report cards and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) comprehensive report to the governor and legislature to reflect those additional measures.

            The revised definition of "at-risk" students includes students subjected to certain disciplinary actions, whether in the previous or current school year; previously reported dropouts; students in the custody of or referred to the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services; and homeless students. The revised definition also extends other criteria to include a student's prior year academic performance or residence in certain facilities, and the bill allows other students who meet local eligibility criteria to receive compensatory education program services.

            The bill also adds school completion rates as a campus performance indicator; amends another indicator to measure school performance based on the percentage, rather than the number, of students who receive accelerated instruction or are promoted through a grade placement committee; requires the commissioner of education to adopt accountability measures to assess the progress of students who failed the statewide test the previous year; and allows TEA to consider the progress of such students in determining a school district's accreditation rating.

            The bill requires TEA to prepare an annual rather than biennial comprehensive report and to provide additional information relating to the number and percentage of student test exemptions and the basis for those exemptions, including exemptions of students placed in alternative education programs (AEPs) and at-risk students and the overall test performance of those students. The annual report also must include information on the completion rates of students who graduate or receive a high school equivalency certificate within certain time frames and the number and percentage of all students who have not been accounted for in any of the school completion categories. Other information required in the report includes the number and percentage of students retained and the performance of such students on the statewide test; the number of students placed in AEPs, the average length of such placements, the students' performance on the statewide test the year before and the year after their placement, and the dropout rates of those students; and a comparison of the performance of open-enrollment charter schools, charter schools predominantly serving at-risk students, and school districts on the various accountability indicators and measures.

            For purposes of determining a school district's compensatory education allotment under the Foundation School Program, the bill allows an alternate computation of the number of educationally disadvantaged students under a commissioner rule if the manner provided by statute does not apply to a particular district; this provision allows districts in which one or more campuses did not participate in the federal free or reduced-price lunch program to receive compensatory education funds for educationally disadvantaged students. The bill restricts the use of such funds to meeting the costs of providing a compensatory, intensive, or accelerated education program, an AEP, or any other program designed to eliminate certain disparities between at-risk students and all other students.