Floor Packet Page No. 63                                                    



	Amend CSHB 2 by Delisi by striking SECTION 2A.15 in its 

entirety, beginning on page 98, line 19, and continuing through 

page 101, line 9, and substituting it with the following text:

	SECTION 2A.15. Subchapter H, Chapter 21, Education Code, is 

amended by adding Section 21.358 to read as follows:

	Sec. 21.358.  LEARNING ENHANCEMENT AWARD PROGRAM (LEAP) FOR 

PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES. (a) The commissioner shall establish the 

Learning Enhancement Award Program to encourage school districts to 

reward those employees who make outstanding contributions at the 

local level to the enhancement of student learning. Each school 

district shall develop a local incentive plan for distributing 

incentive payments to qualifying employees under the Learning 

Enhancement Award Program and shall submit the plan to the 

commissioner for approval.

	(b)  A local incentive plan developed under this section 

shall include learning enhancement goals and priorities 

established annually by the school district through meetings and 

discussions with classroom teachers and administrators at each 

campus in the district. The local incentive plan shall delineate 

specific criteria for awarding incentive payments to campuses to 

distribute to employees and shall demonstrate the relationship 

between those criteria and each of the learning enhancement goals 

in the plan. The criteria for awarding incentive payments may 

include indicators of employee performance, such as teacher 

evaluations conducted by principals, peer reviews and objective 

measures of student achievement.

	(c)  The local incentive plan developed under this section 

must be approved by the district-level planning and decision-making 

committee, as well as the commissioner.

	(d)  Each year a school district shall use an amount equal to 

at least one percent of the district's total professional staff 

payroll to provide incentive payments to employees in accordance 

with this subchapter.

	(e)  Each school district shall use funds designated under 

subsection (d) to provide incentive payments to campuses and 

individual employees who have contributed to the advancement or 

fulfillment of the learning enhancement goals established by the 

district in its local incentive plan. The district-level planning 

and decision-making committee shall determine the appropriate 

distribution of funds under this section, in accordance with 

subsections (f) and (g) and the criteria established in the local 

incentive plan.

	(f)  At least 50% of the funds designated by a district under 

subsection (d) shall be used to pay incentives to employees in any 

of the following categories:

		(1)  Experienced teachers who are serving as trained 

mentors to beginning teachers in the same school district, in 

accordance with a state-approved mentoring program, such as the 

Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS);

		(2)  Teachers who are certified in and teaching in a 

curriculum subject area in which the district is experiencing a 

shortage of qualified teachers, as determined by the commissioner;

		(3)  Teachers who are assigned to teach full-time at a 

campus that is difficult to staff, as determined by the 

commissioner, including a rural or academically unacceptable 

campus; and

		(4)  Employees who, as determined by the district, have 

assisted a campus in overcoming an extraordinary or unexpected 

hardship that is believed to have detrimentally affected student 

learning at the campus.

	(g)  Not more than 50% of the funds designated by the 

district under subsection (d) may be used to pay incentives to each 

full-time classroom teacher whose students demonstrate outstanding 

achievements and/or improvements in scholarship, as delineated in 

criteria in the local incentive plan.  The incentive payments must 

be distributed equally at the campus, department or grade level.

	(h)  Using funds appropriated for purposes of this section, 

the commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to implement this 

section. In adopting rules, the commissioner shall promote 

flexibility in the design of local incentive plans.

	(i) The commissioner shall annually evaluate the 

effectiveness of the Learning Enhancement Award Program at each 

participating campus. The evaluation must consider:

		(1)  the performance of the district's students on 

assessment instruments administered under Section 39.023;

		(2)  the district's high school graduation and 

completion rates;     

		(3)  the district's teacher attrition rates;                           

		(4)  the accountability ratings of the district; and                   

		(5)  the district's success in closing performance gaps 

between educationally disadvantaged students and other populations 

of students.

	(j)  A school district shall include the following 

information in employment contracts:

		(1)  that qualifying employees may qualify for and 

receive incentive payments under the Learning Enhancement Award 

Program (LEAP); and

		(2)  that incentive payments awarded under the Learning 

Enhancement Award Program (LEAP) are considered bonuses and are not 

an entitlement as part of an employee's salary.

	(k)  A school district's decision to provide an incentive 

payment under the Learning Enhancement Award Program is final and 

may not be appealed.