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.