LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
May 16, 2001
TO: Honorable Bill Ratliff, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB702 by West (Relating to compensatory, intensive, and
accelerated education in public schools.), As Passed 2nd
House
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB702, As Passed 2nd House: negative impact of $(4,000,000) *
* through the biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
**************************************************************************
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(2,000,000) *
* 2003 (2,000,000) *
* 2004 (2,000,000) *
* 2005 (2,000,000) *
* 2006 (2,000,000) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* Foundation School Fund *
* 0193 *
* 2002 $(2,000,000) *
* 2003 (2,000,000) *
* 2004 (2,000,000) *
* 2005 (2,000,000) *
* 2006 (2,000,000) *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill makes a number of substantive changes to sections of the Texas
Education Code relating to compensatory education, eligibility for high
school equivalency examinations, and agency and district data reporting.
The bill re-focuses the compensatory education program in Section 2,
adding language to the statutory description of the compensatory
education program focusing on reducing disparity in student performance
and high school completion rates for those students at risk of dropping
out of school. The bill also amends the definition of an at risk student
.
The bill in Sections 3, 8 and 9 requires TEA to make the current agency
biennial report an annual report, and requires that additional data be
reported.
Section 4 changes the academic excellence indicators to add aggregate
percentages of students receiving accelerated instruction services or are
promoted by a grade placement committee, and to add completion rates to
the data reported. Section 5 directs the commissioner to adopt
accountability measures to assess the progress of students who have
failed TAAS in the preceding year.
Section 6 amends school district annual reporting requirements and
Section 9 makes a number of changes to TEA's annual (under current law,
biennial) report. Section 10 amends the requirements for an interim
report such that it is limited to a report on waivers and exemptions.
Section 7 adds TAAS failure rates to the criteria used for school
district accreditation.
Section 11 makes modifications to the use and purposes of the
compensatory education allotment. It limits the compensatory education
funds that may be used by a district for disciplinary alternative
education programs to no more than 18% of the total allotment, but allows
the commissioner to waive that limitation in certain circumstances.
In addition, Section 11 permits commissioner's rule to allow students in
districts in which no campuses participate in the national free or
reduced price lunch program to be identified as "educationally
disadvantaged."
The legislation takes effect immediately. Changes to the academic
excellence indicators and the district annual performance report take
effect for the 2002-03 school year. Most other provisions would
generally apply to the 2001-02 school year.
Methodology
Most of the provisions of the legislation do not have a fiscal
implication to the state. The Section 11 provisions regarding
participation in the federal free or reduced price lunch program do,
however, have a fiscal implication to the Foundation School Program.
The provision adds a population of students for compensatory education
funding purposes that are not currently counted. TEA estimates that
there are 81 school districts or open-enrollment charter schools that do
not participate in the national school lunch program. For the 1999-2000
school year, there were 12,795 students enrolled at those school
districts and open-enrollment charter schools, of whom 1,796 were
reported as low-income. TEA estimates an average compensatory education
allotment for those schools is of $700 for purposes of this estimate.
In addition to the allotment amount, each student would generate
additional funding through the guaranteed yield program, estimated at
approximately $400. Assuming 1,796 students generating an additional
$1,100 in state aid, the impact would be approximately $2.0 million in
additional annual state costs. This estimate will be impacted by the
actual adopted language of the commissioner's rule and by the behavior
of school districts.
Local Government Impact
School districts and open enrollment charter schools not participating in
the federal free or reduced price lunch program would benefit from the
$2 million in increased state aid. School districts in general may also
redirect compensatory education funds to target the defined population
in the legislation.
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency
LBB Staff: JK, CT, UP