HBA-TBM S.B. 1102 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 1102 By: Barrientos Public Education 5/18/2001 Engrossed BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, there is no method for determining what happens to students who are lost from enrollment in Texas schools. The current tracking system notes students that leave as if they transfer to another high school, failing to verify that the student has enrolled at another institution where the student can receive a high school diploma. This creates misleading statistics regarding the high school dropout rate in Texas. Senate Bill 1102 requires the Office of Survey Research at The University of Texas to conduct a comprehensive survey to obtain information concerning students who drop out of school and to report the results of the survey to the legislature. 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 Senate Bill 1102 amends law to require the Office of Survey Research in the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin (OSR) to design and conduct a thorough, statewide, scientific, statistical survey to obtain information concerning children who drop out of school and to prepare a report based on that information. The bill requires individuals conducting the survey to poll, in all regions of this state, parents of children of secondary school age who have dropped out of school and with parental consent, children of secondary school age who have dropped out of school. The individuals shall attempt to obtain the secondary school dropout rates, the reasons for dropping out of school, the number or percentage of dropouts who are attending or have completed a course of instruction to prepare for the high school equivalency examination, the current employment status of dropouts, the opinion of public school instruction held by the persons surveyed, the suggestions by persons surveyed for improving public school education programs to prevent students from dropping out, and any other information specified by the individuals who designed the survey. The bill requires results of the survey to be compared with official Texas Education Agency (TEA) dropout data, to indicate variations in results in various regions of the state, to be compiled by OSR into a report, together with any recommendations arising from the results, and submitted to the legislature not later than January 31, 2003. The bill requires the results to be used by TEA to develop policies to address the needs of students at risk of dropping out of school and requires TEA to cooperate with OSR as necessary for OSR to carry out its duties under these provisions. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.