| TO: | Honorable Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB842 by Bell (Relating to the provision of certain opportunities to career and technical students by public school districts under the college credit program.), As Passed 2nd House |
The bill would allow school districts to implement a college credit program that provided a career and technical education (CTE) student the opportunity to earn the credit for a course or activity, including an apprenticeship or training, necessary to obtain an industry-recognized credential, certificate or an associate degree concurrently with the student's high school diploma if the course or activity was approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for that purpose.
The act applies beginning with the 2015 - 2016 school year.
To the extent that the bill results in an increase in semester credit hours or contact hours at institutions of higher education, there could be formula costs to the State.
Currently, college credit program provisions require each school district to make a program available for students to earn the equivalent of at least 12 semester credit hours of college credit in high school. This bill would allow school districts to provide CTE students the opportunity to earn the credit for a course or activity, including an apprenticeship or training, needed to obtain an industry-recognized credential or certificate or an associate degree. There might be administrative costs for school districts that do not currently include CTE program courses or activities in their college credit programs that meet the bill's requirements.
There would likely be additional costs for school districts to pay tuition for students participating in additional dual credit courses if there was a cost associated with those courses. There could be costs for districts associated with any required equipment related to teaching new CTE courses. There could also be costs associated with hiring additional teachers to teach CTE courses that are not currently being taught. These costs would be voluntary.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board
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| LBB Staff: | UP, SD, RB, JBi, GO, JSc
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