By: Barrientos S.B. No. 393
73R2683 CAE-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to financial assistance to school districts for programs
1-3 for students who are at risk of dropping out, including students
1-4 who are pregnant and students who are parents; administration of
1-5 the equivalency examination pilot program; and notification to
1-6 school districts of births to school-age students.
1-7 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-8 SECTION 1. Section 16.152(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-9 read as follows:
1-10 (a) For each student who is educationally disadvantaged or
1-11 who is a nonhandicapped student residing in a residential placement
1-12 facility in a district in which the student's parent or legal
1-13 guardian does not reside, a district is entitled to an annual
1-14 allotment equal to the adjusted basic allotment multiplied by 0.2,
1-15 and by 2.41 for each full-time equivalent student who is in a
1-16 remedial and support program under Section 21.557 of this code
1-17 because the student is pregnant or is a student who is a parent.
1-18 SECTION 2. Section 16.156, Education Code, is amended by
1-19 adding Subsection (k) to read as follows:
1-20 (k) A school district or county that provides a program of
1-21 educational and support services for students who are pregnant or
1-22 who are parents under Section 21.114 of this code is entitled to a
1-23 state allocation for transportation of those students and children
1-24 of those students paid on the previous year's cost-per-mile basis.
2-1 The maximum rate per mile allowable shall be set by appropriation
2-2 based on data gathered from the first year of each preceding
2-3 biennium.
2-4 SECTION 3. Section 11.351(b), Education Code, is amended to
2-5 read as follows:
2-6 (b) A school district shall participate in the program if
2-7 requested to do so by the Central Education Agency. The agency
2-8 shall request the participation of each district that has a dropout
2-9 rate in the top 33 <25> percent of all districts and has at least
2-10 20 dropouts annually. The commissioner, on request of a district,
2-11 may waive the requirement for a district's participation for one
2-12 year if the district would be unable to effectively participate in
2-13 the program. Other school districts may participate in the pilot
2-14 program on the approval of the Central Education Agency. Each
2-15 district in the program shall offer preparatory classes for the
2-16 high school equivalency examination to students who are eligible
2-17 for the program. The classes shall not be isolated from other
2-18 academic and vocational programs of the school district. The
2-19 district shall inform those students of the locations and times at
2-20 which the students may take a high school equivalency examination.
2-21 SECTION 4. Section 21.557(f), Education Code, is amended to
2-22 read as follows:
2-23 (f) For the purposes of this section, "student at risk of
2-24 dropping out of school" includes:
2-25 (1) each student in grade levels seven through 12 who
2-26 is under 21 years of age and who:
2-27 (A) was not advanced from one grade level to the
3-1 next two or more school years;
3-2 (B) has mathematics or reading skills that are
3-3 two or more years below grade level;
3-4 (C) did not maintain an average equivalent to 70
3-5 on a scale of 100 in two or more courses during a semester, or is
3-6 not maintaining such an average in two or more courses in the
3-7 current semester, and is not expected to graduate within four years
3-8 of the date the student begins ninth grade; <or>
3-9 (D) did not perform satisfactorily on an
3-10 assessment instrument administered under this subchapter in the
3-11 seventh, ninth, or twelfth grade; or
3-12 (E) is a student who is pregnant or who is a
3-13 parent;
3-14 (2) each student in prekindergarten through grade
3-15 level six who:
3-16 (A) did not perform satisfactorily on a
3-17 readiness test or assessment instrument administered at the
3-18 beginning of the school year;
3-19 (B) did not perform satisfactorily on an
3-20 assessment instrument administered under this subchapter in the
3-21 third or fifth grade;
3-22 (C) is a student of limited English proficiency,
3-23 as defined by Section 21.452 of this code;
3-24 (D) is sexually, physically, or psychologically
3-25 abused;
3-26 (E) engages in conduct described by Section
3-27 51.03(a), Family Code; or
4-1 (F) is otherwise identified as at risk under
4-2 rules adopted by the State Board of Education; and
4-3 (3) each nonhandicapped student who resides in a
4-4 residential placement facility in a district in which the student's
4-5 parent or legal guardian does not reside, including a detention
4-6 facility, substance abuse treatment facility, emergency shelter,
4-7 psychiatric hospital, halfway house, or foster family group home.
4-8 SECTION 5. Subchapter A, Chapter 192, Health and Safety
4-9 Code, is amended by adding Section 192.0031 to read as follows:
4-10 Sec. 192.0031. INFORMATION TO SCHOOL DISTRICT OF BIRTH TO
4-11 SCHOOL-AGE MOTHER. (a) Notwithstanding Section 3, Chapter 424,
4-12 Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article
4-13 6252-17a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), each local registrar
4-14 shall notify the school district in which a school-age mother
4-15 resides of each birth to a school-age mother that occurs in the
4-16 local registrar's registration district.
4-17 (b) The notification must include the name and address of
4-18 the mother and the person born. Reports under this section shall
4-19 be sent at least quarterly.
4-20 SECTION 6. Sections 11.351(f) and (g), Education Code, are
4-21 repealed.
4-22 SECTION 7. This Act applies beginning with the 1993-1994
4-23 school year.
4-24 SECTION 8. The importance of this legislation and the
4-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
5-2 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
5-3 passage, and it is so enacted.