LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 80TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

February 26, 2007

TO:	Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB82 by Van de Putte (Relating to safety regulations for certain public school extracurricular activities and the availability of automated external defibrillators at certain public school campuses and events.), As Introduced

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would add provisions to the Education Code concerning safety regulations for extracurricular activities in public schools and other schools subject to University Interscholastic League (UIL) regulations.  The Texas Education Agency would be required to develop a safety training course and to maintain a telephone number and email address to allow individuals to report safety violations.

Local Government Impact

Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, school districts would be required to provide annual safety training courses for all coaches, trainers, sponsors, and certain physicians who assist with extracurricular athletic activities.  The bill includes certification in CPR as one of the elements of the training.  Because §33.086 Education Code currently requires CPR certification for head coaches and sponsors of extracurricular athletic activities, those staff are excluded from this estimate.  Assuming that about 12,000 staff would be trained each year at a cost of about $50 per individual, the cost statewide to comply would be estimated at $600,000 annually beginning in FY2009.

 

The bill would also require safety training for students who participate in extracurricular athletic activities.  If about 10% of the students enrolled in grades 7-12 are provided the training by school district staff during the initial practice for an activity and if electronic documents are used to meet the requirement that the student and parents receive a copy of Sections 33.201-207, Education Code and UIL parent manual, the annual cost statewide to comply with the student training and notification provisions would not be expected to be significant.

 

Beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, school districts would need to acquire a sufficient number of AED units to comply with the provision of the bill requiring that such a unit be available for each UIL practice and competition and at each campus in the district.  Recent anecdotal evidence suggests that nearly two-thirds of campuses serving students in grades 7-12 have at least one AED unit.  However, less than 20% have multiple units.  It is assumed that about 11,200 additional units may be needed in FY2008 to comply with the bill’s requirements concerning athletic practices and competitions and general campus availability for middle school through high school campuses.  It is assumed that 2,500 units would be needed to meet the bill’s requirement that at least one AED unit be available at each elementary school campus.  Assuming a $1,500 per unit average cost, one-time costs for equipment purchases would be estimated at about $20.6 million in fiscal year 2008.  Ongoing costs associated with units are assumed to be limited to periodic maintenance and testing and would not be expected to be significant on a statewide basis.

Source Agencies:

701 Central Education Agency, UIL University Interscholastic League

LBB Staff:

JOB, UP, JSp