By Shapleigh                                           S.B. No. 850
         76R7277 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to individualized performance agreements concerning
 1-3     students who fail to perform satisfactorily in academic classes or
 1-4     on standardized assessment instruments.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 28, Education Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Section 28.026 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 28.026.  INDIVIDUALIZED PERFORMANCE AGREEMENTS.  (a)  If
 1-9     a student fails to perform satisfactorily on an assessment
1-10     instrument under Section 39.023, the student, the student's parent,
1-11     and the student's teachers shall execute an individualized
1-12     performance agreement in accordance with this section.
1-13           (b)  If a student receives for an academic class in a grade
1-14     evaluation period a grade lower than the equivalent of 70 on a
1-15     scale of 100, the student, the student's parent, and the student's
1-16     teacher for that class shall execute an individualized performance
1-17     agreement in accordance with this section.
1-18           (c)  In an individualized performance agreement:
1-19                 (1)  the student shall commit to making a specific and
1-20     described level of effort toward improving performance;
1-21                 (2)  the student's parent shall commit to taking
1-22     specific and described actions designed to enhance the student's
1-23     performance, including enhancement of the student's home learning
1-24     environment; and
 2-1                 (3)  the student's teacher or teachers, as applicable,
 2-2     shall commit to providing specific and described assistance and
 2-3     services designed to enhance the student's performance.
 2-4           (d)  At the request of the student, the student's parent, or
 2-5     a teacher who is a party to an individualized performance
 2-6     agreement, the principal or another appropriate administrator
 2-7     designated by the principal shall confer with the parties to the
 2-8     agreement, participate in the development of the agreement, and
 2-9     sign the agreement.  If an administrator participates, the
2-10     administrator may commit to performing particular actions or ensure
2-11     the provision of particular assistance or services.
2-12           (e)  An individualized performance agreement is not binding,
2-13     and no rights or liabilities accrue to any person as the result of
2-14     an individualized performance agreement.  A student may not be
2-15     punished or in any way discriminated against for failure to meet
2-16     commitments made in an individualized performance agreement.
2-17           (f)  The commissioner may adopt rules governing the form and
2-18     content of individualized performance agreements.
2-19           (g)  If the language normally used in the student's home, or
2-20     the parent's primary language, is other than English, the
2-21     individualized performance agreement must be prepared in both
2-22     languages.
2-23           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
2-24     school year.
2-25           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-4     passage, and it is so enacted.