BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 1980 |
By: VanDeaver |
Public Education |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note that a student who has completed three years of high school before moving to Texas sometimes encounters difficulties in meeting Texas high school graduation requirements due to different course sequencing or requirements in the state where the student previously attended school. The purpose of C.S.H.B. 1980 is to provide local school authorities the necessary flexibility to accommodate students who transfer into the Texas public school system after completion of the 11th grade of high school.
|
||||||||||||
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 rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 2 of this bill.
|
||||||||||||
ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1980 amends the Education Code to require a public school district, for each applicable transfer student who attends the district and who is unable to comply with certain graduation requirements by the end of the student's 12th grade year, to establish an individual graduation committee at the beginning of the student's 12th grade year to determine whether the student may qualify to graduate. The bill limits this requirement to a student who transfers into the Texas public school system after completion of the student's 11th grade year in high school in a different state and who will be unable, based on the credit awarded to the student by the public school system for coursework completed in a different state, to comply with the Texas curriculum requirements for high school graduation by the end of the student's 12th grade year or will have difficulty complying with the end-of-course test requirements for high school graduation. The bill prohibits such a student from qualifying to graduate before the student's 12th grade year. The bill sets out the composition of such an individual graduation committee and requires the superintendent of each school district to establish procedures for the convening of the committee.
C.S.H.B. 1980 requires the committee, in determining whether a student is qualified to graduate, to consider the following criteria: the recommendation of the student's teacher in each course for which the student was not administered an end-of-course test, the student's performance on each alternative nationally recognized norm-referenced test that the student requests to be considered or the student's performance on each Texas Success Initiative (TSI) test that the student requests to be considered, the student's overall preparedness for postsecondary success, and any other academic information designated for consideration by the district's board of trustees. The bill authorizes the committee, after considering the criteria, to determine that the student is qualified to graduate and requires the commissioner of education by rule to establish a timeline for making such a determination. The bill establishes that the committee's decision is final and may not be appealed. The bill requires the commissioner to adopt rules as necessary to implement the bill's provisions regarding the award of a high school diploma to such a transfer student on the basis of individual graduation committee review.
C.S.H.B. 1980 requires the commissioner to allow a student to satisfy certain requirements regarding performance on end-of-course tests and qualify for a high school diploma through satisfactory performance on one or more alternative nationally recognized norm-referenced tests or TSI tests if the student transfers into the Texas public school system after completion of the student's 11th grade year in high school in a different state and the student receives a recommendation by the student's individual graduation committee under the bill's provisions that the student qualifies for a high school diploma. The bill requires the commissioner, for purposes of ensuring that such a student may satisfy the requirements solely through performance on one or more alternative nationally recognized norm-referenced tests or TSI tests, to establish required performance levels for the tests that correspond to the performance levels otherwise required on the secondary exit-level tests for English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. The bill applies beginning with students enrolled in Texas public high schools as a senior during the 2017-2018 school year.
|
||||||||||||
EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2017.
|
||||||||||||
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1980 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
|
||||||||||||
|