| TO: | Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1324 by Madden (Relating to the discipline of public school students, the operation of certain behavioral programs or disciplinary alternative education programs, and the placement of students with certain disabilities in disciplinary alternative education programs and juvenile justice alternative education programs.), As Engrossed |
The bill would require school districts to consider certain mitigating circumstances in a decisions regarding the suspension, expulsion, or removal to an alternative setting of students.
The bill would require that school districts follow certain procedures when a student with a disability who receives special education services is expelled to a Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP).
The bill would require Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEP) to employ only certified teachers, to provide at least the minimum required instructional time per day and days per academic year; and to implement the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) of students assigned to DAEPs when applicable. The bill would require school districts to provide a copy of a student's IEP to the DAEP to which the student is assigned.
The bill would require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to establish a cross-system coordinated behavioral health intervention pilot project in Bexar County in cooperation with the Local Mental Health Authority (LMHA) for children with mental disabilities or who are assigned to DAEPs . It is assumed the pilot project would coordinate existing behavioral health intervention services across systems and would not directly provide new behavioral health intervention services. It is assumed DSHS could absorb the costs of the pilot with existing resources.
The bill would require school districts to follow certain procedures and to abide by standards regarding alternative education programs established by the bill. To the extent that the standards established by the bill would require the replacement of uncertified staff with certified staff and the extension of instructional time per day or days per year, local costs would be incurred. Those costs would be expected to vary statewide.
The bill would require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to establish a cross-system coordinated behavioral health intervention pilot project in Bexar County in cooperation with the Local Mental Health Authority (LMHA) for children with mental disabilities or who are assigned to DAEPs. The bill would require participating local mental health authorities to report on the effectiveness of the pilot project not later than December 1, 2008.
| Source Agencies: | 537 State Health Services, Department of, 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, JSp, UP, JSc
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