TO: | Honorable Dan Patrick, Chair, Senate Committee On Education |
FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
IN RE: | SB115 by Williams (Relating to a school choice program for certain students with disabilities.), As Introduced |
Fiscal Year | Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds |
---|---|
2014 | $23,933,542 |
2015 | $31,824,002 |
2016 | $40,005,624 |
2017 | $48,253,084 |
2018 | $56,500,544 |
Fiscal Year | Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1 |
Probable Savings/(Cost) from Foundation School Fund 193 |
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2013 |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | ($808,838) | $24,742,380 | 6.0 |
2015 | ($1,165,838) | $32,989,840 | 6.0 |
2016 | ($615,838) | $40,621,462 | 6.0 |
2017 | ($615,838) | $48,868,922 | 6.0 |
2018 | ($615,838) | $57,116,382 | 6.0 |
The value of the scholarship that would be provided under the provisions of the bill is limited to the special education allotment of the FSP, which funds only the portion of a student's instructional time spent in special education instruction. The majority of students receiving special education services are not served through special education instruction on a full-time basis. The scholarship would not include FSP funds generated by a student for regular instruction. Currently, about 412,000 students receive special education instruction, equating to about 115,000 full-time equivalent students.
For purposes of this estimate, it is assumed that on average each student accessing a scholarship under the provisions of the bill would have received 10 hours of instruction per week in a regular education setting, generating a savings to the FSP equal to about one-third of the entitlement generated by a student in average daily attendance (ADA) in the regular program, or about $2,000 per student. Assuming 3 percent of students served through special education services would access the scholarship program in FY2014, increasing by 1 percent per year in each subsequent year, the savings to the FSP is estimated at $24.7 million in General Revenue Funds (Foundation School Fund No. 193) in FY2014 and $33.0 million in FY2015, increasing to $57.7 million by FY2018.
The Texas Education Agency estimates that alternative attendance accounting procedures would be necessitated by the provisions of the bill, requiring an expenditure of $357,000 in FY2014 and $762,000 in FY2015 in contract costs to modify existing systems and to develop software to support the application process. Ongoing maintenance costs are estimated at $212,000 annually beginning in FY2016. TEA estimates that 6.0 additional FTEs would be required to process applications for the scholarship and to administer the program at a cost of $451,838 in FY2014 and $403,838 in each subsequent fiscal year.
Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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LBB Staff: | UP, JBi, JSc
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