| TO: | Honorable Kent Grusendorf, Chair, House Committee on Public Education |
| FROM: | John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB107 by Chavez (Relating to certain requirements for prekindergarten programs for public school students.), As Introduced |
The bill would require that all pre-kindergarten programs operated by school districts meet applicable child-care licensing standards adopted by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. This would expand the current requirement that private entities meet these standards while under contract with school districts. In addition, school districts would be required to coordinate the use of licensed child-care and Head Start sites with existing pre-kindergarten programs, and to investigate the possibility of sharing programs sites before implementing a pre-kindergarten program
Although there are no direct fiscal implications for the foundation school program or the operations of the Texas Education Agency, there may be local cost implications with regard to staff to child ratios and coordination efforts. An analysis of 2002-2003 data reveals that in order to meet the new ratio requirement, approximately 915 full-time employees would have to be added at a cost of $13,757,025. It is estimated that the coordination effort would require an average of 20 hours per campus offering pre-kindergarten services statewide per year. Assuming that an administrator charged with the coordination efforts is at least at the level of an assistant principal, the statewide cost beginning in 2003-2004 to comply would be approximately $1,400,000.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JK, CT, UP, PQ
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