LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 12, 2009

TO:	Honorable Rob Eissler, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1323 by Strama (relating to bullying and harassment in public schools. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

This bill would require each school district’s board of trustees to publish an annual report that includes the number, rate, and type of incidents of bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, and acts of discrimination that occurred on each district campus.  The Texas Education Agency would incur modest one-time costs in fiscal year 2010 for systems modification, but these costs are not estimated to be significant.

Local Government Impact

School districts may be required to modify local student information systems or work with vendors to update student information system packages used to collect, report, and extract data.  Local costs for systems modification would be expected to vary widely depending on the complexity of any updates needed to accommodate new data, whether affected software systems were locally-developed or vendor-provided packages, and the terms of vendor maintenance agreements. 

School districts would be required to provide instruction to students concerning the elements of bullying and sexual harassment and the action students should take in case of bullying or sexual harassment, including procedures for reporting an incident.  To the extent that such instruction is not currently being provided, school districts could incur costs to provide the required instruction. 

Source Agencies:

701 Central Education Agency

LBB Staff:

JOB, JSp, JGM, WG