| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the Texas Dual Language Elementary Education Grant |
|
|
Program. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 28, Education Code, is |
|
|
amended by adding Section 28.0055 to read as follows: |
|
|
Sec. 28.0055. TEXAS DUAL LANGUAGE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION |
|
|
GRANT PROGRAM. (a) In this section, "program" means the Texas Dual |
|
|
Language Elementary Education Grant Program. |
|
|
(b) The commissioner shall establish and administer the |
|
|
Texas Dual Language Elementary Education Grant Program in |
|
|
accordance with this section to provide grants to school districts. |
|
|
(c) The purpose of the program is to provide funding for |
|
|
costs associated with the transition of a traditional elementary |
|
|
school campus that provides a bilingual education program to a dual |
|
|
language campus. |
|
|
(d) To be eligible to receive a grant under the program, a |
|
|
school district must: |
|
|
(1) have an enrollment of 5,000 or more students; and |
|
|
(2) submit to the agency a plan for a dual language |
|
|
campus that is cost-effective and that: |
|
|
(A) allows for attendance by a district student |
|
|
regardless of where the student resides in the district; |
|
|
(B) provides for maintaining an enrollment of |
|
|
students of whom at least 40 percent are native English speakers; |
|
|
(C) provides for integrating language learning |
|
|
with content instruction for all of the campus's students at all of |
|
|
the campus's grade levels so that academic subjects are taught in |
|
|
both English and the campus's other language; and |
|
|
(D) includes a commitment to operate the dual |
|
|
language elementary campus for at least five school years. |
|
|
(e) A grant awarded under this section may be funded only |
|
|
with money appropriated for the program and any gifts, grants, or |
|
|
donations made to the agency that may be used for and that the |
|
|
commissioner applies to funding the program. The commissioner, in |
|
|
accordance with commissioner rule and based on the amount available |
|
|
for the program, shall determine the amount of each grant awarded |
|
|
under this section. A school district awarded a grant under this |
|
|
section may use the grant only for personnel costs, professional |
|
|
development costs, and supplies and materials costs incurred as a |
|
|
direct result of the transition to a dual language campus as |
|
|
described under Subsection (d). |
|
|
(f) The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to |
|
|
administer this section. |
|
|
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives |
|
|
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as |
|
|
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this |
|
|
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this |
|
|
Act takes effect September 1, 2013. |