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.