LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session April 17, 2001 TO: Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public Education FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB2910 by Reyna, Arthur (Relating to using prekindergarten grants to educate students who qualify for a school district's Title I program.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** The bill amends Texas Education Code 29.155, relating to the pre-kindergarten grant program. The current program allows districts to grants under 29.155 to expand programs serving students who are eligible for Foundation School Program funded pre-kindergarten programs under 29.153: eligible students must be unable to speak and comprehend English, be educationally disadvantaged or homeless. The bill would add "students who are not eligible students under Section 29.153(b) but who qualify for the school district's Title I program" to the list of eligibility criteria. For purposes of this estimate, it is assumed that Title I eligibility is intended to apply to an individual student's economic status. Campuses with 50 percent or more students in poverty may operate campus-wide Title I programs; if all of those students are made eligible for the pre-kindergarten grant program, there would be a significant fiscal impact to the state. It is assumed that this legislation is intended to apply only to specific students identified as eligible for Title I services. "Educationally disadvantaged" is defined in current law as being eligible for the federal free or reduced price lunch program. Eligibility for the free lunch program is a family with an income of 130 percent of the federal poverty level (about $22,165 for a family of four) and eligibility for the reduced price lunch program is a family with an income of 185 percent of the federal poverty level (about $31,543 for a family of four). School districts have some amount of latitude under federal law to determine which students are eligible for Title I programs. The criteria from which a district can choose, however, tends to identify a population of students with family incomes below 185 percent of poverty. A commonly used district criteria for Title 1 programs is eligibility for the free or reduced price lunch program. To the extent that the legislation applies to students already eligible under current law, it is unlikely that pre-kindergarten eligibility would be significantly expanded by the legislation. It should be noted that the language only applies to the pre-kindergarten grant program. The addition of Title I eligibility for grant program participation does not make a student eligible for the Foundation School Program (FSP) funded pre-kindergarten program; therefore, if a student were eligible for the pre-kindergarten grant program (generally operated as a "second half day" to the FSP program) solely as a function of Title I eligibility they would remain ineligible for the FSP program. Local Government Impact No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. Local school districts would have to amend the process for identifying pre-kindergarten eligible children to include the new criteria. Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency LBB Staff: JK, CT, PF, UP