BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center H.B. 1844
By: Howard, Charlie, Bonnen (Janek)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, students who are home-schooled and have completed college preparatory education are not allowed to participate in Advanced Placement or Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) testing at public schools. The State of Virginia passed legislation requiring schools to make the testing known to home-schooled students and to allow them to participate in the testing.
H.B. 1844 requires a school district to permit a home-schooled student to participate in an administration of the PSAT/NMSQT or a college advanced placement test offered by the district. The bill also requires that notice be provided to home-schooled students about the dates on which the PSAT/NMSQT will be administered and which districts will be administering the testing.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 1 (Section 29.916, Education Code), of this bill.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter Z, Chapter 29, Education Code, by adding Section 29.916, as follows:
Sec. 29.916. HOME-SCHOOLED STUDENT MERIT SCHOLARSHIP AND ADVANCED PLACEMENT TESTING. (a) Defines "home-schooled student" and "PSAT/NMSQT."
(b) Requires a school district (district) to permit a home-schooled student entitled under Section 25.001 (Admission) to attend a public school in the district to participate in an administration of the PSAT/NMSQT or a college advanced placement test offered by the district. Requires a district to require a home-schooled student to pay the same fee to participate in a text under this subsection that a student enrolled in the district is required to pay.
(c) Requires a district to post on an Internet website maintained by the district the date the PSAT/NMSQT will be administered and the date any college advanced placement tests will be administered. Requires that the notice required under this subsection to state that the PSAT/NMSQT or the advanced placement test is available for home-schooled students eligible to attend school in the district and describe the procedures for a home-schooled student to register for the test. Requires a district that does not maintain an Internet website to publish the information required by this subsection in a newspaper in the district. Requires the district, if a newspaper is not published in the district, to provide for the publication of notice in at least one newspaper in the county in which the district's central administrative office is located. Requires the information required under this subsection to be posted or published at the same time and with the same frequency with which the information is provided to a student who attends a district school.
(d) Authorizes the commissioner of education to adopt rules as necessary to implement this section.
SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective to the 2007-2008 school year.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.