Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate Honorable Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2205 by Crownover (Relating to the State Board for Educator Certification, educator preparation programs, educator certification, issuance of certain teaching permits, and certain procedures for investigating educator misconduct.), Conference Committee Report
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Education Code relating to educator preparation programs (EPPs), the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), educator certification, teaching permits, and educator investigations.
The bill would expand SBEC membership by one and require the governor to appoint at least one SBEC member with experience and knowledge of alternative EPPs.
The bill would decrease GPA admission requirements and increase field-based experience hours. The bill would also limit the number of times a person could retake a certification exam.
The bill would require SBEC to establish rules to govern approval and renewal of EPPs, develop an EPP teacher satisfaction survey, develop a risk-assessment model to drive monitoring, inspection, and compliance audit activities, and establish a process to direct a complaint against an EPP.
The bill would require rules for sanctioning EPPs to include SBEC procedures for changing the accreditation status of an EPP that did not meet the accreditation standards established under the accountability system or that violated an SBEC or Texas Education Agency (TEA) regulation. The bill would require SBEC to include certain specified elements in the information provided about educator preparation programs.
The bill would allow the Commissioner of Education to issue a subpoena in the course of an educator misconduct investigation.
The bill would allow a board of trustees to issue a school district teaching permit to a person that does not hold a baccalaureate degree, based on the qualifications certified by the superintendent.
This bill would take effect September 1, 2015.
Based on the analysis of the Texas Education Agency, duties and responsibilities associated with implementing the provisions of the bill could be accomplished by utilizing existing resources.
Local Government Impact
School districts will be required to assist TEA personnel with identifying teachers who need to complete the teacher satisfaction survey.
School districts may experience additional administrative costs if they have difficulty in filling teaching positions because of the limitation on retaking examinations and are required to hire on emergency and district teaching permits.
Source Agencies:
710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 701 Central Education Agency, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 769 University of North Texas System Administration, 783 University of Houston System Administration