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By: Griggs H.B. No. 2296
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to certain educational mandates imposed on school
districts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 39.112, Education Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
(e) [(g)] Notwithstanding Subsection (b), a school campus
or school district that is rated as exemplary for three successive
school years is exempt for the subsequent three-year period from
each assessment requirement imposed by Subchapter B, other than the
secondary exit-level assessment requirement imposed by Section
39.023(c) and each assessment requirement imposed by Section 39.023
that applies to students in grade three. After the expiration of
the three-year exemption period, each student at the campus or
district, as applicable, must be assessed in compliance with
Subchapter B. If the campus or district maintains an exemplary
rating as a result of those assessments, the campus or district is
entitled to a subsequent three-year exemption period as described
by this subsection. A campus or district may receive an unlimited
number of exemptions under this subsection, provided that at the
end of each exemption period each student at the campus or district,
as applicable, is assessed to determine the entitlement of the
campus or district to a subsequent exemption period.
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 42, Education Code, is
amended by adding Sections 42.008 and 42.009 to read as follows:
Sec. 42.008. PROGRAM AUDITS. Except as otherwise required
by federal law as necessary for federal funds, an agency audit of a
school district program for which a district receives an allotment
under Section 42.151, 42.153, 42.154, or 42.156 must be initially
conducted by the agency electronically through a desk audit. If the
desk audit indicates that a district is not at high risk of having
misused an allotment or having inadequately reported and audited
allotment funds, the district may not be subject to on-site
monitoring under this section.
Sec. 42.009. RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF ALLOTMENTS. (a)
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, a school district
that is determined through an agency program audit and the audit
conducted by the district under Section 44.008 to be in compliance
with all requirements associated with receipt of an allotment under
Section 42.151, 42.152, 42.153, 42.154, or 42.156 is subsequently
entitled to an exemption from any requirement relating to the
percentage of the allotment that must be used for a program for
which the allotment was provided. The district is entitled to the
exemption until an agency program audit or the audit conducted by
the district under Section 44.008 identifies an area of
noncompliance.
(b) The agency may require a school district that is
determined through an agency program audit or the audit conducted
by the district under Section 44.008 to be out of compliance with a
requirement associated with receipt of an allotment under Section
42.151, 42.152, 42.153, 42.154, or 42.156 to include in the
district's corrective plan a requirement that a specified
percentage of subsequently received allotment funds be spent on
program costs.
SECTION 3. Sections 42.152(c) and (q), Education Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(c) Funds allocated under this section [shall be used only
to fund supplemental programs and services designed to eliminate
any disparity in performance on assessment instruments
administered under Subchapter B, Chapter 39, or disparity in the
rates of high school completion between students at risk of
dropping out of school, as defined by Section 29.081, and all other
students. Specifically, the funds], other than an indirect cost
allotment established under State Board of Education rule, which
may not exceed 15 percent, may be used only to improve and enhance
programs and services funded under the regular education program
[meet the costs of providing a compensatory, intensive, or
accelerated instruction program under Section 29.081 or an
alternative education program established under Section 37.008 or
to support a program eligible under Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as provided by Pub. L. No. 103-382
and its subsequent amendments, and by federal regulations
implementing that Act, at a campus at which at least 50 percent of
the students are educationally disadvantaged. In meeting the costs
of providing a compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instruction
program under Section 29.081, a district's compensatory education
allotment may be used only for costs supplementary to the regular
education program, such as costs for program and student
evaluation, instructional materials and equipment and other
supplies required for quality instruction, supplemental staff
expenses, salary for teachers of at-risk students, smaller class
size, and individualized instruction. A home-rule school district
or an open-enrollment charter school must use funds allocated under
Subsection (a) for a purpose authorized in this subsection but is
not otherwise subject to Subchapter C, Chapter 29. Notwithstanding
any other provisions of this section:
[(1) to ensure that a sufficient amount of the funds
allotted under this section are available to supplement
instructional programs and services, no more than 18 percent of the
funds allotted under this section may be used to fund disciplinary
alternative education programs established under Section 37.008;
and
[(2) the commissioner may waive the limitations of
Subdivision (1) upon an annual petition, by a district's board and a
district's site-based decision making committee, presenting the
reason for the need to spend supplemental compensatory education
funds on disciplinary alternative education programs under Section
37.008. The district shall in its petition report the number of
students in each grade level, by demographic subgroup, not making
satisfactory progress under the state's assessment system. The
commissioner will make this waiver request information available
annually to the public on the agency's website].
(q) The State Board of Education, with the assistance of the
state auditor and the comptroller, shall develop and implement by
rule a reporting and auditing system for district and campus
expenditures of compensatory education funds to ensure that
compensatory education funds, other than the indirect cost
allotment, are spent only to improve and enhance [supplement] the
regular program. The reporting and auditing requirements shall be
managed electronically to minimize local administrative costs. The
commissioner shall develop a system that uses agency desk audits to
identify school districts that are at high risk of having used
compensatory education funds other than in compliance with
Subsection (c) or of having inadequately reported and audited those
funds and, as a result, require on-site monitoring under this
subsection. If the agency desk audit indicates that a district is
not at high risk of having misused compensatory education funds or
having inadequately reported and audited those funds, the district
may not be subject to on-site monitoring under this subsection. The
commissioner, in the year following an audit of compensatory
education expenditures, shall withhold from a district's
foundation school fund payment an amount equal to the amount of
compensatory education funds the agency determines were not used in
compliance with Subsection (c). The commissioner shall release to
a district funds withheld under this subsection when the district
provides to the commissioner a detailed plan to spend those funds in
compliance with Subsection (c).
SECTION 4. Section 42.154(c), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(c) Funds allocated under this section, other than an
indirect cost allotment established under State Board of Education
rule, may [must] be used to achieve any goal included in the
district's technology plan [in providing career and technology
education programs in grades nine through 12 or career and
technology education programs for students with disabilities in
grades seven through 12 under Sections 29.182, 29.183, and 29.184].
SECTION 5. To the extent consistent with its existing
authority, the Texas Education Agency shall promote the
establishment and operation of pilot programs under which school
districts and campuses that exhibit excellence in education are
provided with exemptions from state educational regulations.
SECTION 6. Sections 39.055(b)-(d), Education Code, are
repealed.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.