BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3907

By: Harper-Brown

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties note that students in open-enrollment charter schools and public school districts who graduate, but do not graduate with their ninth grade cohorts, are counted as dropouts and that when a student in an open-enrollment charter school or a public school district drops out, reenrolls, and then drops out again, that student is counted as a dropout twice. The parties assert that this distorts the state's dropout rates and punishes schools trying to help at-risk students.

H.B. 3907 seeks to remedy this problem and provide a more accurate measure of a school's success or failure by excluding certain students from being counted as dropouts.

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. 3907 amends the Education Code to include among the students the commissioner of education is required to exclude in computing dropout and completion rates for purposes of performance indicators of student achievement a student who is reported as a dropout, reenrolls, and drops out again, regardless of the number of times of reenrollment and dropping out.

H.B. 3907 establishes that, for purposes of evaluating a school district or campus or an open-enrollment charter school for adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and for school accountability and performance under a Texas Education Agency performance-based monitoring analysis system, a student who graduates from a school district campus or open-enrollment charter school is considered a high school graduate of the campus or school regardless of whether the student graduates with the student's ninth grade cohort and a student who was previously reported to the state as a dropout, including a student who is reported as a dropout, reenrolls, and drops out again, regardless of the number of times of reenrollment and dropping out, is required to be excluded in computing completion and dropout rates. The bill's provisions apply beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.