LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 83RD LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 23, 2013

TO:	Honorable Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives
FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB742 by Strama (Relating to a grant program for certain school districts to provide summer instruction primarily for students who are educationally disadvantaged and summer teaching opportunities for high-performing, new, and student teachers.), As Passed 2nd House

The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time because the bill does not specify a methodology for determining grant awards, and the number of districts that could qualify is too large to estimate the population that could potentially be served.

The bill would create a grant program for districts to provide summer instruction to primarily educationally disadvantaged students. The program would be limited to not more than 10 school districts to use in providing instructional programs to students in prekindergarten through grade 8 during the period in which school is recessed for the summer.

The bill would require each participating district to submit a report to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) on its participation in the program.

The bill would require TEA to contract with an evaluator to determine the effectiveness of the program.

TEA indicates that two full-time equivalents would be required to administer the program and provide technical assistance to applicants and grant applicants at a cost of $84,408 in fiscal year 2014 and $76,408 in subsequent years including salary, benefits, and other operating expenses.

TEA indicates that the evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the program would cost an estimated $250,000 in fiscal year 2015 and $100,000 in fiscal year 2017.

Based on information provided by TEA, 875 school districts and open-enrollment charter schools could qualify for the grant program by having more than 50 percent educationally disadvantaged students enrolled. Since the bill would provide each district with considerable flexibility in how the program would be implemented, including whether to provide the program on a full-day or half-day basis, and whether to make the program voluntary or mandatory for educationally disadvantaged students, the fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

701 Central Education Agency

LBB Staff:

UP, SD, JBi, JSc, AH