BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 592

By: Pitts

Corrections

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

A county juvenile board in Texas operates a juvenile justice alternative education program (JJAEP) to offer an alternative form of discipline and education for a juvenile expelled from a public school district.  Current law requires a county with a population greater than 125,000 to establish a JJAEP for that purpose. This mandate to establish and fund the program can be harmful to a county facing a budget limitation.

C.S.H.B. 592 sets out circumstances under which a county with a population greater than 125,000 is not required to establish a JJAEP.

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

C.S.H.B. 592 amends the Education Code to specify that for the purposes of provisions of law requiring the juvenile board of a county with a population greater than 125,000 to develop a juvenile justice alternative education program and requiring every expelled student in such a county who is not detained or receiving treatment under a juvenile court order to be enrolled in such a program, a county with a population greater than 125,000 is considered to be a county with a population of 125,000 or less if the county has a population of 180,000 or less; is adjacent to two counties, each of which has a population of more than 1.7 million; and has seven or more school districts located wholly within the county's boundaries. The bill makes its provisions applicable beginning with the 2011-2012 school year.  

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 592 omits provisions included in the original raising the population threshold for a county at which the county's juvenile board is required to develop a juvenile justice alternative education program and at or beneath which such a board is authorized to develop such a program and making conforming changes to reflect that new threshold. The substitute contains a provision not included in the original setting out the circumstances under which a county with a population greater than 125,000 is considered to be a county with a population of 125,000 or less for purposes of the requirement or authorization to develop a juvenile justice alternative education program, as applicable, and the requirement that certain expelled students in such a county attend the program. The substitute omits a provision included in the original requiring a juvenile court that has required a child as a condition of probation or deferred prosecution to attend a juvenile justice alternative education program in a county that is not required to operate such a program to modify the conditions of probation or deferred prosecution if the county discontinues the operation of the program.