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
  
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*  No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.        *
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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