SRC-TAG S.B. 976 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research CenterS.B. 976 By: Shapiro Education 7/25/2003 Enrolled DIGEST AND PURPOSE According to the Texas Education Agency, 23,457 students dropped out of public school in the 19992000 school year and other studies indicate the actual number may be much higher. Students most likely to drop out of school are those with poor attendance, those who must work, those who are older than the majority of their classmates, and those who fall behind in class credits in high school. S.B. 976 establishes a Middle College Education Pilot Program for students at-risk of dropping out; provides atrisk students with services such as flexible scheduling and mentor programs; requires schools to review data related to dropout prevention and incorporate the information in district and campus improvement plans; and allow the commissioner of education to impose sanctions on districts that have been rated as academically unacceptable due to high dropout rates. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 2 (Section 29.908(c), Education Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter F, Chapter 11, Education Code, by adding Section 11.255, as follows: Sec. 11.255. DROPOUT PREVENTION REVIEW. (a) Requires each district-level planning and decision-making committee and each campus-level planning and decision-making committee for a junior, middle, or high school campus to analyze information related to dropout prevention, including certain factors. (b) Requires each district-level and decision-making committee and each campus-level planning and decision-making committee to use the information reviewed under this section while developing district or campus improvement plans under this subchapter. SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter Z, Chapter 29, Education Code, by adding Section 29.908, as follows: Sec. 29.908. MIDDLE COLLEGE EDUCATION PILOT PROGRAM. (a) Requires the commissioner of education (commissioner) to establish and administer a middle college education pilot program for students who are at risk of dropping out of school or who wish to accelerate high school completion. Provides that for the purposes of this section, "student at risk of dropping out of school" has the meaning assigned by Section 29.081. (b) Requires the program to meet certain requirements. (c) Provides that in accordance with the rules adopted by the commissioner, the student participating in the program is entitled to the benefits of the Foundation School Program in proportion to the amount of time spent by the student on high school courses. Authorizes the commissioner to accept gifts, grants, and donations to pay program costs not covered by the student's Foundation School Program benefits. (d) Requires the commissioner to consult the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) while establishing and administering the program. SECTION 3. Amends Section 39.131(a), Education Code, to require the commissioner, to the extent deemed necessary, to take certain actions listed in order of severity, if a district fails to meet the accreditation criteria, including imposing certain sanctions on a district which has been rated as academically unacceptable for a period of one year or more due to the district's dropout rates. SECTION 4. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, by adding Section 130.0012, as follows: Sec. 130.0012. PILOT PROJECT. BACCALAUREATE DEGREE PROGRAMS. (a) Requires THECB to establish a pilot project to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of authorizing public junior colleges to offer baccalaureate degree programs in the fields of applied science and applied technology. Provides that the participation in the pilot project does not otherwise alter the role and mission of a public junior college. (b) Requires THECB to operate the pilot project at three public junior colleges, as determined by THECB. (c) Requires a public junior college participating in the pilot project to meet all applicable accreditation requirements of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. (d) Prohibits a public junior college participating in the pilot project from offering more than five baccalaureate degree programs under the project at any time. Establishes that the degree programs are subject to THECB's continuing approval. Requires THECB and the junior college, in determining what baccalaureate degree programs are to be offered, to consider certain factors. (e) Requires each public junior college that offers a baccalaureate degree program under the pilot project to enter into an articulation agreement with one or more general academic teaching institutions to ensure that students enrolled in the degree program have an opportunity to complete the degree if the public junior college ceases to offer the degree program. Authorizes THECB to require a general academic teaching institution that offers a comparable degree program to enter into an articulation agreement with the public junior college as provided by this subsection. (f) Requires THECB, in its recommendations to the legislature relating to state funding for public junior colleges, to recommend that a public junior college receive substantially the same state support for junior-level and senior-level courses offered under the pilot project as that provided to a general academic teaching institution for substantially similar courses. Requires THECB, in determining the contact hours attributable to students enrolled in a junior-level or senior-level course offered under the pilot project used to determine a public junior college's proportionate share of state appropriations under Section 130.003, to weigh those contact hours as necessary to provide the junior college the appropriate level of state support to the extent state funds for those courses are included in the appropriations. Provides that this subsection does not prohibit the legislature from directly appropriating state funds to support junior-level and senior-level courses offered under the pilot project. (g) Requires each public junior college participating in the pilot project to prepare a biennial report on the operation and effectiveness of the junior college's baccalaureate degree programs offered under the project and require to deliver a copy of the report to THECB in the form and at the time determined by THECB. (h) Requires THECB, by January 1, 2009, to prepare a progress report on the pilot project. Requires THECB, by January 1, 2011, to prepare a report on the effectiveness of the pilot project, including any recommendations for legislative action regarding the offering of baccalaureate degree programs by public junior colleges. Requires THECB to deliver a copy of each report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the chair of the standing committee of each house of the legislature with primary jurisdiction over higher education. (i) Prohibits a public junior college from taking certain actions, unless the authority to continue offering the baccalaureate degree programs is continued by the legislature. (j) Requires THECB to prescribe the procedures to ensure that each public junior college that offers a degree program under the pilot project informs each student who enrolls in the degree program of the nature of the pilot project, including the limited duration of the project; and the articulation agreement entered into under Subsection (e) for the student's degree program. (k) Provides that this section expires January 1, 2020. SECTION 5. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2003. Provides that Sections 1 and 3 apply beginning with the 2004-2005 school year.