| TO: | Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB474 by Barrientos (Relating to safety regulations for certain extracurricular school activities. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would require the commissioner of education to develop and adopt a safety training program applicable to all schools in the state subject to University Interscholastic League (UIL) regulations. The Texas Education Agency would incur a one-time cost of approximately $50,000 in fiscal year 2006 for contracted services to develop the safety program.
The bill would require all coaches, trainers, sponsors, marching band directors, and certain physicians who assist with extracurricular athletic activities to complete safety training annually. The bill would also require that each student participating in an extracurricular activity receive safety training and that schools provide an electronic copy of Sections 33.201-207, Education Code to each participating student and their parent or guardian unless otherwise requested.
The bill would require each school district to make an automated external defibrillator (AED) available at each UIL high school athletic football, basketball, and soccer competition. The bill would exempt school districts that provide for emergency services personnel at such competitions.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2005 and would apply beginning with the 2006-07 school year, except the provisions within the proposed Section 33.204, Education Code, which would apply beginning with the 2005-06 school year.
School districts would be required to provide annual safety training to all coaches, trainers, sponsors, marching band directors, and certain physicians who assist with UIL extracurricular athletic activities. The safety training for staff could approach $554,000 annually for local school districts statewide.
Districts would also be required to provide student safety training and to supply each student and their parent or guardian with an electronic copy of Sections 33.201-207, Education Code; these requirements are not anticipated to be significant on a statewide basis.
School districts would need to either arrange for staffing by emergency services personnel or acquire a sufficient number of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to comply with the provision in the bill. Based on the assumption that the average cost of an AED unit would be $1,500, one-time costs for equipment purchases in fiscal year 2006 would range from $5.0 to $7.5 million statewide. Assuming that employee training in the use of the units would be incorporated into the annual safety training required under the bill, ongoing costs associated with units are assumed to be limited to periodic maintenance and testing and would not be expected to be significant.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency, UIL University Interscholastic League
|
| LBB Staff: | JOB, CT, UP, KC
|