By Howard                                        H.B. No. 470

      75R2578 CAS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the public education grant program.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.   Subchapter G, Chapter 29, Education Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 29.2011 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 29.2011.  DEFINITION.    In this subchapter, "parent"

 1-7     includes a guardian or custodian.

 1-8           SECTION 2.   Section 29.202, Education Code, is amended to

 1-9     read as follows:

1-10           Sec. 29.202.  ELIGIBILITY.  (a)  A student is eligible to

1-11     receive a public education grant under this subchapter if the

1-12     student is assigned to attend a public school campus:

1-13                 (1)  at which 50 percent or more of the students did

1-14     not perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument administered

1-15     under Section 39.023(a) or (b) in the preceding three years;  or

1-16                 (2)  that was, at any time in the preceding three

1-17     years, identified as low-performing by the commissioner under

1-18     Subchapter D, Chapter 39.

1-19           (b)  Each school year, each public school campus described

1-20     under Subsection (a) must provide written notice to the parent of

1-21     each student  enrolled at the campus and of each student who  is

1-22     registered to attend kindergarten at the campus the following

1-23     school year that the student is eligible to receive a public

1-24     education grant.  The notice must contain a clear, concise

 2-1     explanation of the public education grant program and of the manner

 2-2     in which the parent may obtain further information about the

 2-3     program.

 2-4           SECTION 3.   Sections 29.203(b) and (c), Education Code, are

 2-5     amended to read as follows:

 2-6           (b)  A student's public education grant is the total state

 2-7     and local funding per student for the school district in which the

 2-8     student resides.  Total funding from state and local sources

 2-9     includes the special allotments under Subchapter C, Chapter 42, and

2-10     the cost of education adjustment under Section 42.102, but does not

2-11     include the small and mid-sized district and [,] sparsity[, and

2-12     cost of education] adjustments under Sections 42.103 and 42.105,

2-13     respectively [and allotments for technology and transportation].  A

2-14     student's public education grant is the entitlement of the student,

2-15     under the supervision of the student's parent, [guardian, or

2-16     custodian,] is not an entitlement of any school district, and is

2-17     paid to a school district solely as a means of administrative

2-18     convenience.

2-19           (c)  A school district chosen by a student's parent under

2-20     Section 29.201 is entitled to [accept or] reject the application

2-21     for the student to attend school in that district only if  95

2-22     percent or more of the available positions for the grade level for

2-23     which the student is applying are filled.  The district [but] may

2-24     not use criteria that discriminate on the basis of a student's

2-25     race, ethnicity, academic achievement, athletic abilities, language

2-26     proficiency, sex, or socioeconomic status.  A school district that

2-27     has more acceptable applicants for attendance under this subchapter

 3-1     than available positions must give priority to students at risk of

 3-2     dropping out of school as defined by Section 29.081 and must fill

 3-3     the available positions by lottery.  However, to achieve continuity

 3-4     in education, a school district may give preference over at-risk

 3-5     students to enrolled students and to the siblings of enrolled

 3-6     students residing in the same household or other children residing

 3-7     in the same household as enrolled students for the convenience of

 3-8     parents, guardians, or custodians of those children.

 3-9           SECTION 4.   This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

3-10     school year.

3-11           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the

3-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

3-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

3-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

3-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

3-16     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

3-17     passage, and it is so enacted.