| TO: | Honorable Dan Patrick, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB681 by West (Relating to a pilot program for a three-year high school diploma plan and cost-neutral expansion of full-day prekindergarten programs.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would allow Dallas Independent School District (ISD), Houston ISD, and 10 ISDs within Cameron County to establish a pilot program through which students could earn a high school diploma in three years, pursuant to the provisions of the bill. The bill would direct that the entitlement that would have been earned under the Foundation School Program (FSP) if students participating in the pilot program had attended school for the fourth year would be redirected for the purpose of providing a full-day prekindergarten program in eligible ISDs in the year subsequent to the students' graduation under the three-year program. The pilot program would expire at the end of FY2023.
Costs associated with implementing the program are not estimated to be significant.
The bill brackets the Dallas, Houston, Brownsville, Harlingen, La Feria, Los Fresnos, Point Isabel, Rio Hondo, San Benito, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa, and Lyford school districts.
Eligible ISDs would be permitted to establish a pilot three-year high school diploma plan and have FSP funds associated with participants' fourth year of high school redirected to support full-day prekindergarten.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | UP, JBi, JSc
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