BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 226

By: Nelson

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to interested parties, student health has been shown in numerous studies to be closely tied to academic performance, attendance, and behavior. Recent legislation required school districts to assess the fitness of their students and submit the results to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in an aggregate manner. The legislation also required the TEA to correlate this data with academic and attendance data, but it has been observed that accurate correlations cannot currently be made because the TEA is unable to match an individual student's academic performance with the student's physical fitness performance. S.B. 226 seeks to address this problem as it relates to reporting individual student performance on a physical fitness assessment instrument to the TEA.

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

S.B. 226 amends the Education Code to require a school district to provide the results of individual student performance on the annual physical fitness assessment administered to students enrolled in grades 3 through 12 to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), rather than requiring a school district to compile the results of the physical fitness assessment and provide summary results, aggregated by grade level and any other appropriate category identified by commissioner of education rule, to the TEA. The bill prohibits the results from containing a student's social security number or date of birth, in addition to the names of individual students or teachers.

S.B. 226 makes conforming changes and 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.