LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session March 27, 2001 TO: Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public Education FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB1843 by Jones, Elizabeth (Relating to the administration of assessment instruments in public schools.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * * * ************************************************************************** Presently, all the same subject-area TAAS assessments must be administered by districts on the same day by grade level in order to maintain security. The bill allows a two-week window in which districts may give the tests. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), this would open the testing program to a significant potential for violations of the security of the tests and other testing irregularities. In order to mitigate such violations, the agency estimates an annual cost of $21-26 million for the development of multiple forms of the test and additional monitoring. Because the testing program is funded by the Foundation School Program's compensatory education allotment, the $21-26 million would be recognized as a reduction in revenue available for distribution to districts, and thus there would be no net cost to the state. Local Government Impact School districts that receive state aid under the Foundation School Program through the compensatory education allotment would experience an annual reduction in that distribution equal to the annual costs incurred by TEA for multiple test development, additional monitoring and other test security measures. TEA estimates these annual costs to total $21-26 million. Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency LBB Staff: JK, CT, PF, JM