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Senate Bill 975 |
Senate Author: Hinojosa et al. |
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Effective: 6-17-11 |
House Sponsor: Munoz, Jr. et al. |
Senate Bill 975 amends the Education Code to authorize a public junior college located in a county with a population of 750,000 or more and with less than 65 percent of the population 25 years of age and older having graduated from high school according to certain United States Census Bureau estimates, beginning September 1, 2012, to enter into an articulation agreement to partner with one or more school districts located in the public junior college district, each having a dropout rate higher than 15 percent, to provide on the junior college campus a dropout recovery program for certain students to successfully complete and receive a diploma from a high school of the appropriate partnering school district. A person who is under 26 years of age is eligible to enroll in such a program if the person must complete not more than three course credits to complete the curriculum requirements for high school graduation or has failed to perform satisfactorily on an end-of-course test.
The bill establishes requirements for the design and implementation of a dropout recovery curriculum; requires the junior college to coordinate with each partnering school district to provide in the articulation agreement that the district retains accountability for student attendance, student completion of high school course requirements, and student performance on tests as necessary for the student to receive a diploma from a high school of the partnering school district; and makes a dropout recovery program subject to the same requirements as a private or public community-based dropout recovery education program used by a school district to provide alternative education programs for students at risk of dropping out of school.
The bill authorizes a public junior college district to receive from each partnering school district for each student from that district enrolled in a dropout recovery program an amount negotiated between the junior college district and that partnering district within a certain limit, provides for the inclusion of a student who is enrolled in a dropout recovery program in the computation of the partnering school district's average daily attendance, makes a public junior college in a partnership eligible under certain circumstances to receive dropout prevention and intervention program funds appropriated to the Texas Education Agency, and authorizes the public junior college to receive gifts, grants, and donations to use for the bill's purposes.
The bill provides for the continued applicability of the bill's provisions to a public junior college or public school district if, after the public junior college and a school district enter into a partnership, either the county's demographics of the district's dropout rate changes and either the junior college or the school district no longer meets the partnership criteria.