HBA-LJP H.B. 3494 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3494
By: Tillery
Public Education
4/12/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, ready to read grants are provided for staff development,
curriculum and materials, skills and assessment materials, and employment
of instructors for pre-reading instruction.  Research has shown the
importance of early intervention in helping children become successful
readers.  House Bill 3494 increases the amount of the grants and clarifies
that the ready to read grants are to be used for programs that promote
pre-reading skills in children. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 3494 amends the Education Code to specify that the ready to read
grants (grant) that the Commissioner of Education (commissioner) is
required to make are for the support of the development of pre-reading
skills in children who are at least three but younger than six years of
age.  The bill removes the provision regarding the use of the grants for
the identification of cost effective models for pre-reading intervention.
The bill provides that the pre-reading instruction must be based on an
assessment of the needs of each individual child and provide a full-day,
year-round setting with an appropriate teacher to student ratio that
reflects the knowledge that young children learn only in the context of
relationships and that learning activities for those children must be
experiential to be effective. 

The bill raises, from $50,000 to $100,000, the minimum amount of a grant
and from $150,000 to $500,000, the maximum amount of a grant.  The bill
provides that each grant is to implement new prereading instruction
programs or to enhance existing pre-reading instruction  programs.  The
bill provides that a new program or existing program, as enhanced, must
include components designed to enable a child to: 

_develop phonemic, print, and numeracy awareness;


_understand and use language to communicate a range of feelings and
purposes; 

_understand and use an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary;

_develop and demonstrate interest in books; and

_progress toward a mastery of the English language or, if the child's
primary language is not the English language, become familiar with and
progress toward mastery of the English language. 

The bill removes provisions regarding the use of the grants for
professional staff development in pre-reading instruction, curriculum and
materials, skills assessment materials, and for employment of pre-reading
instructors.  The bill removes provisions regarding the calculation by the
commissioner of the matching of funds of an applicant as a condition to
receive a grant and provides that the matching private or public funds be
in an amount equal to at least 20 percent of the amount of the grant. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.