BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1725

By: Chavez

Defense & Veterans' Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Tens of thousands of students of military families from other states and overseas will relocate to Texas over the next several years due to the federal Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 and the transfer of active duty servicemembers.  Whether they are adjusting to a new school in a new community or have one or both parents stationed abroad in a combat zone, the children of soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom, or the children of soldiers that are relocating due to the act, are faced with a set of special challenges.  School districts could better afford counseling services to assist such children with these special challenges if the compensatory education allotment provided to the districts is increased.   

H.B. 1725 increases the compensatory education allotment provided to a school district for each student who has a parent or guardian who is serving on active duty in a combat zone as a member of the armed forces of the United States and for each student who has a parent or guardian serving on active duty as a member of the armed forces of the United States and has transferred to a campus in the district during the school year as a result of a change in residence because of an action taken under the federal Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990.

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. 1725 adds temporary provisions to the Education Code, set to expire September 1, 2012, to entitle a school district, under the compensatory education allotment of the foundation school program, to an annual allotment equal to $650 for each student in average daily attendance who has a parent or guardian who is serving on active duty in a combat zone as a member of the armed forces of the United States and for each student in average daily attendance who has a parent or guardian serving on active duty as a member of the armed forces of the United States and has transferred to a campus in the district during the school year as a result of a change in residence because of an action taken under the federal Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990.

H.B. 1725 authorizes a school district, notwithstanding any other provision of the compensatory education allotment, to use these funds only to provide supplemental programs and services designed to eliminate disparity in performance on assessment instruments or in the rates of high school competition for such students who are military dependents enrolled in the district.

H.B. 1725 prohibits the amount appropriated for allotments for such students from exceeding $9.9 million in a school year.  The bill requires the commissioner of education, if the total amount of allotments to which districts are entitled for such students for a school year exceeds the amount appropriated for such allotments, to reduce each district's allotment proportionately.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.