| TO: | Honorable Kent Grusendorf, Chair, House Committee on Public Education |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB386 by McCall (Relating to participation in school district services and activities by home-schooled students. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds |
|---|---|
| 2006 | ($5,624,000) |
| 2007 | ($5,624,000) |
| 2008 | ($5,780,000) |
| 2009 | ($5,936,000) |
| 2010 | ($6,092,000) |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Savings/(Cost) from GENERAL REVENUE FUND 1 |
Probable Savings/(Cost) from STATE TEXTBOOK FUND 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | ($5,000,000) | ($624,000) |
| 2007 | ($5,000,000) | ($624,000) |
| 2008 | ($5,000,000) | ($780,000) |
| 2009 | ($5,000,000) | ($936,000) |
| 2010 | ($5,000,000) | ($1,092,000) |
The bill would: (1) allow the part-time enrollment of a home-schooled student in a public school; (2) authorize a district to establish an off-campus laboratory or other facility for home-schooled students; (3) permit districts to offer an online course to home-schooled students for academic credit; (4) entitles a home-school student who is enrolled part-time in public school under the provisions of the bill to textbooks without cost for courses in which the student is enrolled; and (5) allow districts to permit home-schooled students to participate in a district-sponsored extracurricular activity. School districts would be prohibited from charging tuition for any of the above activities, but would be required to charge fees if any such fees are charged to regularly enrolled students.
The provisions related to online instruction would only go into effect, only if HB 1445 fails to go into effect. The bill would require any home-schooled student that is participating in two hours of instruction or two courses to be assessed using the TAKS, if the student is taking subjects through the district that are assessed.
The bill would allow school districts to receive funding for the average daily attendance of home-schooled students who are enrolled part-time, participate in an online course, or use an off-campus laboratory or other facility. School districts would be allowed to count participating home-schooled students’ attendance proportionally for any day that a home-schooled student receives services or participates in a course. Funding of home-schooled students is limited to 1,000 full-time equivalent students, or $5 million per year. If more students participate than 1,000 FTEs or the cost exceeds $5 million, the commissioner is directed to reduce the district’s share of students to the proportion of the districts students other than home schooled to the student population of the state, and the funding proportionately.
This legislation would apply beginning with the 2005-2006 school year.
Based on data by the Texas Home School Coalition and a proportional analysis of recent home school data published by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) and the
The typical attendance cost of such students under the current formulas would be about $4,900; under the assumptions of this fiscal note, the cost of home-school attendance would be about $7.8 million in 2006, and increase thereafter. However, the bill specifically limits the state cost to $5 million for appropriation purposes.
For the textbook entitlement created by the bill, it is assumed that six textbooks would be required for each full-time equivalent student. With textbook costs estimated to be approximately $65 per book, the state cost in 2006 for the 1,600 full-time equivalent students would be $624,000. Because of the small number of students and the ability of students to enroll unpredictably in different courses from home-schooled students that had previously enrolled with the district, it is likely that additional books will be needed each year by school districts. For the purpose of this fiscal note, it is assumed that half of the textbooks purchased in one year would be available for use the following year. This assumption results in a gradual increase to the state cost of providing textbooks to home-schoolers enrolled part-time, from an estimated $624,000 in 2006 and 2007 to $1,092,000 in 2010.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, CT, UP, JGM
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