79R12388 SLO-F


By:  Isett                                                        H.B. No. 3468



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to an intensive reading and language intervention pilot 
program.   
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 29, Education Code, is 
amended by adding Section 29.094 to read as follows:
	Sec. 29.094.  INTENSIVE READING AND LANGUAGE INTERVENTION 
PILOT PROGRAM.  (a)  In this section, "pilot program" means the 
intensive reading and language intervention pilot program.
	(b)  The commissioner by rule may establish a pilot program 
in which a participating campus provides intensive reading and 
language intervention to participating students.
	(c)  If the commissioner establishes the pilot program, a 
campus may apply to the commissioner to participate.  The 
commissioner may select for participation in the pilot program only 
campuses that have failed to improve student performance in reading 
according to standards established by the commissioner.  The 
standards established by the commissioner for purposes of this 
subsection must be based on reading performance standards required 
for student promotion under Section 28.0211.
	(d)  If the commissioner establishes the pilot program, the 
commissioner shall adopt minimum criteria that a program must meet 
to be selected by a participating campus for use in providing 
intensive reading and language intervention.  The criteria must 
include neuroscience-based, scientifically validated methods, 
interventions, or instructional tools that have been proven to 
accelerate learning, cognitive ability, and language proficiency.  
A participating campus shall submit a summary of the campus's 
proposed intensive intervention program to the commissioner for 
approval.  The commissioner may approve only a program that follows 
the minimum criteria adopted under this subsection.
	(e)  The principal of a participating campus, in 
consultation with classroom teachers at the campus, shall select 
students to participate in the pilot program.  A participating 
campus shall assess each selected student before the student enters 
and after the student transfers out of the pilot program to measure 
the student's progress.
	(f)  Not later than December 31, 2006, any vendor of an 
intensive intervention program approved under Subsection (d), in 
consultation with the agency and each school district with which 
the vendor contracts under this section, shall provide the 
legislature with a report describing student progress under the 
assessments administered to participating students under 
Subsection (e).
	(g)  Notwithstanding any other law, the commissioner may 
provide funding for the pilot program using not more than $6 million 
of funding appropriated for purposes of Section 28.0211.
	(h)  If the commissioner establishes the pilot program, the 
commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to implement this section.
	(i)  If the commissioner establishes the pilot program, the 
commissioner shall make the pilot program available to 
participating campuses during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school 
years.
	(j)  This section expires July 1, 2007.                                 
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.