By: Dutton H.B. No. 2104

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to charter schools and accurately accounting for workforce development statistics.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Chapter 12, Education Code, is amended by adding new Sections 12.141 and 12.142, to read as follows:

Sec. 12.141. DROP OUT PREVENTION AND RECOVERY OPEN ENROLLMENT CHARTER HIGH SCHOOLS. (a) To better serve the needs of at-risk students, improve the quality of the available workforce, and increase student success rates in obtaining and maintaining employment, a school that otherwise qualifies as an open enrollment charter school may apply in a form approved by the commissioner to be assessed as an open enrollment charter high school.

(b) A compliant application by an open enrollment charter school to be assessed as a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Charter High School shall be granted if:

(1) Fifty percent (50%) or more of its students are 17 years of age or older; and

(2) Seventy-five percent (75%) or more of its students are considered to be at risk of dropping out of school, as defined by Section 29.081.

Sec. 12.142. ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF DROP OUT PREVENTION AND RECOVERY OPEN ENROLLMENT CHARTER HIGH SCHOOLS. (a) Provisions of this Title and other laws made applicable to open enrollment charter schools by Section 12.104 apply to a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School, except as follows:

(1) A student who enrolls at a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School shall not be included in calculating the drop out or completion rates for the school unless the student remains enrolled for at least twenty (20) school days.

(2) Solely for the purpose of assessing the completion rate for the students, and measuring the success, of a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School in educating older students otherwise excluded from the calculation of the diploma completion rate under NCES standards, a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School may request that the commissioner include all students who graduate from a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School in the calculation of the school's completion rate. The calculation methodology under this Section shall be as follows:

Graduates + GED Recipients + Continuers

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Graduates + GED Recipients + Continuers + Dropouts

(3) The commissioner may adopt a set of indicators to measure the quality of learning and student achievement at a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School.

(b) A Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School shall be responsible for reporting the information required to perform the assessments described by this Section, performing the calculation specified in Section 12.142(a)(b), and all reasonable costs incurred by the commission in verifying the information and calculation.

SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all of 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.