BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 833

By: Davis

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law requires each school district to participate in the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), which compiles aggregated information about all students in public education and tracks students based on certain distinguishing characteristics. Interested parties note that students in foster care are not being tracked, leading to a lack of helpful information about them. S.B. 833 seeks to address this issue by providing for the collection of data through PEIMS as to the foster care status of public school students.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 833 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in order to facilitate the implementation of the requirement that TEA provide the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) with aggregate demographic information regarding educational outcomes of students who during the preceding school year were in the conservatorship of DFPS following an adversarial hearing based on demographic information provided to TEA by DFPS regarding individual students in foster care, to collect data through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) as to the foster care status of students in the manner established by commissioner of education rule.

EFFECTIVE DATE

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