BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

                                                                                                                                             H.B. 500

                                                                                                                                           By: Castro

                                                                                                                                 Public Education

                                                                                                       Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Currently school districts are not required to notify the parent(s) if their child becomes eligible for automatic college admission. Many graduating seniors who are eligible for automatic college admission are unaware of or unclear about the top 10% rule or their eligibility until after college application deadlines have passed. Parents, who are central to the decision-making process, are also often unaware of or unclear about the top 10% rule and their child’s eligibility. H.B. 500 requires school districts to provide notification to eligible students’ parents not later than fourteen days after the last day of classes for the fall semester (or an equivalent date in the case of a school operated on a year-round system) in order to allow families ample time to fully consider a student’s college options prior to most Texas college admission deadlines.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. 

 

ANALYSIS

 

H.B. 500 amends the Education Code to require schools districts to provide each eligible high school senior student and the student's parent or guardian with a written notification of the student’s eligibility with respect to automatic college admission, with an explanation in plain language of the substance of Section 51.803 of the Education Code, not later than the 14th day after the last day of classes for the fall semester or an equivalent date for a school operated on a year-round system.

 

The bill requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to adopt a form for providing notice, and requires that the notice to a student and the student’s parent or guardian must be on a single form. The bill further provides that the form may contain one or more signature lines to indicate receipt of notice by the student or the student’s parent or guardian. In providing the notice required by the bill, a school district must use the form adopted by TEA.

 

The bill requires that TEA adopt such form as soon as practicable after the effective date of the Act, and school districts must provide the required notice beginning with the 2007-2008 school year.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2007.