By Horn H.B. No. 496
75R3360 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to parental access to assessment instruments administered
1-3 by the state in public schools.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 26.005, Education Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 26.005. ACCESS TO STATE ASSESSMENTS. A [Except as
1-8 provided by Section 39.023(d), a] parent is entitled to access to a
1-9 copy of each state assessment instrument administered under Section
1-10 39.023(a), (b), or (c) to the parent's child after the instrument
1-11 is administered.
1-12 SECTION 2. Section 39.023(d), Education Code, is amended to
1-13 read as follows:
1-14 (d) Under rules adopted by the State Board of Education, the
1-15 agency shall release the questions and answer keys to each
1-16 assessment instrument administered under Subsection (a), (b), or
1-17 (c) after the last time the instrument is administered for a school
1-18 year. [To ensure a valid bank of questions for use each year, the
1-19 agency is not required to release a question that is being
1-20 field-tested and was not used to compute the student's score on the
1-21 instrument. The agency shall also release, under board rule, each
1-22 question that is no longer being field-tested and that was not used
1-23 to compute a student's score.]
1-24 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-1 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.