By Cuellar H.B. No. 1110
75R5491 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 to read as follows:
1-6 SUBCHAPTER G. PUBLIC EDUCATION GRANT PROGRAM
1-7 Sec. 29.201. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "private
1-8 school" means a school that:
1-9 (1) offers a general education to elementary or
1-10 secondary students; and
1-11 (2) is not operated by a governmental entity.
1-12 Sec. 29.202. PARENTAL CHOICE. Notwithstanding any other
1-13 provision of this code, as provided by this subchapter an eligible
1-14 student may attend a public school in the district in which the
1-15 student resides or may use a public education grant to attend a
1-16 public school in any other district or a private school chosen by
1-17 the student's parent.
1-18 Sec. 29.203 [29.202]. ELIGIBILITY. A student is eligible to
1-19 receive a public education grant under this subchapter if the
1-20 student is assigned to attend a public school campus:
1-21 (1) at which 50 percent or more of the students did
1-22 not perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument administered
1-23 under Section 39.023(a) or (b) in the preceding three years; or
1-24 (2) that was, at any time in the preceding three
2-1 years, identified as low-performing by the commissioner under
2-2 Subchapter D, Chapter 39.
2-3 Sec. 29.204 [29.203]. FINANCING. (a) A student eligible
2-4 under Section 25.001 to attend school in a school district but who
2-5 under this subchapter attends a public school in another district
2-6 or a private school is included in the average daily attendance of
2-7 the district in which the student resides. The district in which
2-8 the student attends school or the private school the student
2-9 attends shall report the student's attendance to the district in
2-10 which the student resides in accordance with rules adopted by the
2-11 commissioner.
2-12 (b) A student's public education grant is the total state
2-13 and local funding per student for the school district in which the
2-14 student resides. Total funding from state and local sources
2-15 includes special allotments under Subchapter C, Chapter 42, but
2-16 does not include small district, sparsity, and cost of education
2-17 adjustments and allotments for technology and transportation. A
2-18 student's public education grant is the entitlement of the student,
2-19 under the supervision of the student's parent, guardian, or
2-20 custodian and [,] is not an entitlement of any school district[,
2-21 and is paid to a school district solely as a means of
2-22 administrative convenience]. The portion of a student's public
2-23 education grant to be paid from state funds shall be paid to the
2-24 district in which the student resides. The district in which the
2-25 student resides shall transfer all or part of the student's public
2-26 education grant funds to the district in which the student attends
2-27 school or the private school the student attends in accordance with
3-1 Subsection (d).
3-2 (c) A school district or a private school chosen by a
3-3 student's parent under Section 29.202 [29.201] is entitled to
3-4 accept or reject the application for the student to attend school
3-5 in that district or at that private school, as applicable, but may
3-6 not use criteria that discriminate on the basis of a student's
3-7 race, ethnicity, academic achievement, athletic abilities, language
3-8 proficiency, sex, or socioeconomic status. A school district that
3-9 has more acceptable applicants for attendance under this subchapter
3-10 than available positions must give priority to students at risk of
3-11 dropping out of school as defined by Section 29.081 and must fill
3-12 the available positions by lottery. However, to achieve continuity
3-13 in education, a school district may give preference over at-risk
3-14 students to enrolled students and to the siblings of enrolled
3-15 students residing in the same household or other children residing
3-16 in the same household as enrolled students for the convenience of
3-17 parents, guardians, or custodians of those children.
3-18 (d) A school district or a private school chosen by a
3-19 student's parent under Section 29.202 [29.201] may not charge the
3-20 student tuition in addition to the public education grant or charge
3-21 tuition that is greater than the district's average expenditure per
3-22 student or the private school's usual tuition charge, as
3-23 applicable. The school district in which the student resides is
3-24 entitled to the remainder, if any, of the student's public
3-25 education grant funds.
3-26 (e) The school district in which a student resides shall
3-27 provide each student attending a school in another district or
4-1 attending a private school under this subchapter transportation
4-2 free of charge to and from the school the student would otherwise
4-3 attend.
4-4 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998
4-5 school year.
4-6 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
4-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-11 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-12 passage, and it is so enacted.