LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 78TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 7, 2003

TO:	Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:	John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1518 by Dutton (Relating to accountability for public school dropouts and students at risk of dropping out of school and to the evaluation of school campuses.), As Engrossed

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

Section 1 of the bill refines the current requirement that districts evaluate their accelerated instruction by requiring an analysis of the effectiveness of each at-risk program in their improvement plans.  The Commissioner would be required to ensure district compliance.

 Section 1 of the bill also requires that Texas Education Agency (TEA) evaluations of accelerated instruction programs be systematic and that the evaluation results organized and shared with districts.  The bill allows TEA to fund this activity with a set-aside from the compensatory education allotment if existing resources are not sufficient.  Therefore section 1 is cost-neutral to the state; it is also assumed that ensuring district compliance regarding evaluating accelerated instruction would necessarily be a component of the agency's systematic evaluation.

Section 2 creates a dropout data oversight committee.  It is assumed that the administrative demands the committee would place on TEA would be minimal and within available resources.

This bill would partially implement recommendation ED 2 from the Comptroller's e-Texas report, Limited Government, Unlimited Opportunity.

Local Government Impact

The section 3 provision allowing the commissioner to grant exemptions from compensatory education funding audits to certain districts could result in savings for those districts eligible; the typical compensatory education audit is approximately $10,000.

Source Agencies:

304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 701 Central Education Agency

LBB Staff:

JK, CT, UP, JGM