BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1522

By: White

State Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that parents, who are typically their children's first and best teachers in life, should have more educational resources regarding parenting available to them. H.B. 1522 seeks to create a task force to coordinate and make recommendations on parent engagement and education programs provided by state agencies.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1522 amends the Government Code to establish the task force on parent engagement and education programs to enhance coordination of parent engagement and evidence-based parent education programs across state agencies and develop comprehensive, statewide best practices for engaging parents as their children's first and best teachers. The bill sets out the composition of the nine-member task force, requires the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to serve as the presiding officer of the task force, and requires the executive commissioner to appoint specified members to the task force in accordance with the bill's provisions. The bill requires a vacancy for an appointed task force member to be filled in the same manner as the original appointment and requires the task force to meet at least quarterly at the call of the presiding officer and at other times as determined by the presiding officer. The bill prohibits appointed task force members from being reimbursed for travel or other expenses incurred while conducting the business of the task force and specifies that appointed members serve without compensation.

H.B. 1522 requires the task force to receive reports and testimony from individuals, state and local governmental agencies, community-based organizations, and other public and private organizations regarding parent engagement and evidence-based parent education programs; to identify parent engagement and evidence-based parent education programs that are being implemented in Texas and describe opportunities for improved coordination among those programs to maximize the programs' effectiveness and funding and align program outcomes; and to develop policy and other recommendations for expanding access to parent engagement and evidence-based parent education programs, establishing comprehensive statewide best practice guidelines for those programs, and establishing methods for using existing administrative and program data to identify and target program services to certain parents, families, and communities.

H.B. 1522 requires the task force to prepare a report that includes specified information relating to the task force's activities, findings, and recommendations and, not later than December 1, 2018, to submit the report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the presiding officers of the standing committees of the senate and house of representatives having primary jurisdiction over issues relating to parent engagement and education. The bill requires HHSC to provide reasonably necessary administrative and technical support to the task force and exempts the task force from statutory provisions relating to state agency advisory committees. The bill authorizes HHSC to accept on behalf of the task force a gift, grant, or donation from any source to carry out the purposes of the task force. The task force is abolished and the bill's provisions expire September 1, 2019.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2017.