By Pitts                                        H.B. No. 1952

      75R4713 ESH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to funding for compensatory education programs in public

 1-3     schools.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 42.152(a)-(c), Education Code, are

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (a)  For each student who is academically [educationally]

 1-8     disadvantaged or who is a student who does not have a disability

 1-9     and resides in a residential placement facility in a district in

1-10     which the student's parent or legal guardian does not reside, a

1-11     district is entitled to an annual allotment equal to the adjusted

1-12     basic allotment multiplied by 0.2, and by 2.41 for each full-time

1-13     equivalent student who is in a remedial and support program under

1-14     Section 29.081 because the student is pregnant.

1-15           (b)  For purposes of this section, "student who is

1-16     academically disadvantaged" means a student who did not perform

1-17     satisfactorily on:

1-18                 (1)  a readiness test or assessment instrument

1-19     administered at the beginning of the school year; or

1-20                 (2)  an assessment instrument administered under

1-21     Subchapter B, Chapter 39, during the preceding school year [the

1-22     number of educationally disadvantaged students is  determined by

1-23     averaging the best six months' enrollment in the national school

1-24     lunch program of free or reduced-price lunches for the preceding

 2-1     school year].

 2-2           (c)  Funds allocated under this section[, other than an

 2-3     indirect cost allotment established under State Board of Education

 2-4     rule, which may not exceed 15 percent,] must be used in providing

 2-5     compensatory education and accelerated instruction programs under

 2-6     Section 29.081 that [, and the district must account for the

 2-7     expenditure of state funds by program and by campus under existing

 2-8     agency reporting and auditing procedures.  Funds allocated under

 2-9     this section, other than the indirect cost allotment, shall only be

2-10     expended to] improve and enhance programs and services funded under

2-11     the regular education program.  At least 80 percent of funds

2-12     allocated  under this section must be used to provide remedial

2-13     instruction in reading at each school in which, during the

2-14     preceding school year, more than 50 percent of the students did not

2-15     perform satisfactorily on the assessment instrument in reading

2-16     administered in the third grade under Section 39.023(a).  A

2-17     home-rule school district or an open-enrollment charter school must

2-18     use funds allocated under Subsection (a) to provide compensatory

2-19     services but is not otherwise subject to Subchapter C, Chapter 29.

2-20     A school district or an open-enrollment charter school that

2-21     receives funds allocated under Subsection (a) shall send to the

2-22     commissioner an annual report that:

2-23                 (1)  describes in detail how funds allocated under

2-24     Subsection (a) were spent;

2-25                 (2)  describes in detail the changes in student

2-26     performance attributable to compensatory education programs; and

2-27                 (3)  contains other information required by the

 3-1     commissioner.

 3-2           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998

 3-3     school year.

 3-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 3-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 3-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 3-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 3-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 3-9     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

3-10     passage, and it is so enacted.