S.B. 1366 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS S.B. 1366 By: Bivins Public Education Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current Texas law permits students who graduate from an accredited high school within 36 months to be eligible for a $1000 Early High School Graduation Scholarship. S.B. 1366 amends the requirements to require a student to graduate early with a recommended or advanced diploma in order to be eligible for the early graduation scholarship. The bill also provides for a student who does not satisfy the curriculum requirements due only to circumstances out of the student's control. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, institution, or agency. ANALYSIS S.B. 1366 amends the Education Code, by providing that a person must have successfully completed the recommended or advanced high school program established under Section 28.025, rather than requirements for a public high school diploma, in a certain time frame in order to be eligible for the Early High School Graduation Scholarship program. The bill provides that a person who does not satisfy these curriculum requirements is considered to have satisfied those requirements if the high school from which the person graduated indicates on the person's transcript that the person was unable to complete the appropriate curriculum within the time prescribed by that subsection solely because necessary courses were unavailable to the person at the appropriate times in the person's high school career as a result of course scheduling, lack of enrollment capacity, or another cause not within the person's control. The bill requires the school district, if a student, other than a student permitted to take courses under the minimum high school program, is unable to complete the recommended or advanced high school program solely because necessary courses were unavailable to the student at the appropriate times in the student's high school career as a result of course scheduling, lack of enrollment capacity, or another cause not within the person's control, to indicate that fact on the student's transcript form. This provision applies to students entering grade nine during or after the 2003-2004 school year and expires January 1, 2004. The bill provides that Section 56.203, Education Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to a person who enters grade nine during or after the 2003-2004 school year and that a person who enters grade nine before that time is governed by the law as it existed previously. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2003.