BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center C.S.S.B. 117
By: Van de Putte
Education
Committee Report (Substituted)
AUTHOR'S/SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
For years, parents in the military and their children have shouldered the burden of the frequent movement that accompanies being a part of a military family. In addition to the challenge of moving into a different house, making new friends, and adjusting to a strange town, many children have encountered difficulties in enrolling in a new school.
Currently, under the Education Code, a school district is allowed an entire month before it is required to transfer student records to the new school in which the child has enrolled. This delay of information between public schools has caused children to be placed in classes inappropriate for their learning level.
C.S.S.B. 117 requires a transferring school district to transfer the student's records to a receiving school district by the 10th day of the student's enrollment in the new school. This bill also requires the school district from which records have been requested to notify a child's parents that they are authorized to obtain an unofficial copy of the records that they may deliver to the receiving school.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 25.002, Education Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1), as follows:
(a) Requires a parent or other person with legal control of a child under a court order who enrolls the child in a public school, or the school district in which the child most recently attended, to furnish to the school district certain information. Deletes text providing a deadline of the 30th day after enrollment for parents or other persons with legal control of a child under a court order to provide the information.
(a-1) Requires information a school district furnishes under Subsections (a)(1) and (2) to be furnished by the district not later than the 10th working day after the date a request for the information is received by the district. Requires information furnished by a parent or other person with legal control of a child under a court order to be furnished under Subsections (a)(1) and (2) by a parent or other person not later than the 30th day after the date a child is enrolled in a public school. Requires the district, if a parent or other person with legal control of a child under a court order requests that a district transfer a child's student records, to notify the parent or other person as soon as practicable that the parent or other person is authorized to request and receive an unofficial copy of the records for delivery in person to a school in another district.
SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2005.