BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.H.B. 3437 |
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By: Moody |
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Public Education |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties suggest that steps must be taken to address the loss of educational opportunities borne by certain students as a result of the recently eliminated cap on special education enrollment. C.S.H.B. 3437 seeks to achieve that by requiring the distribution of a notice of educational rights and providing for recovery by public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools of costs for certain student evaluations.
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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.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 1 of this bill.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 3437 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop a notice for distribution and posting on the TEA website that indicates the change made from 2016 to 2017 in reporting requirements for public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools regarding the special education representation indicator adopted in the Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System Manual and, in plain language, the rights of a child under both federal and state law and the general process available to initiate a referral of a child for a full individual and initial evaluation to determine the child's eligibility for special education services. The bill requires a district or charter school to include in the notice developed by TEA information indicating where the local processes and procedures for initiating a referral for special education services eligibility evaluation may be found; to provide the notice by a date established by the commissioner of education to the parent of each child who attends school in the district or at the school at any time during the 2017-2018 school year; to make the notice available in English and Spanish and to any person on request; and to make a good faith effort to provide the notice in the parent's native language if the parent's native language is a language other than English or Spanish. The bill establishes that the notice required by the bill is in addition to certain documents TEA is required to produce and provide to districts under statutory provisions relating to the parental right to information concerning special education and education of students with learning difficulties.
C.S.H.B. 3437 requires TEA, beginning with the 2017-2018 school year and from federal funds available for this purpose, to establish a reimbursement fund from which districts and charter schools may apply and receive cost reimbursement if the district or school experiences a significant increase from the preceding school year in the number of full individual and initial evaluations of students conducted for purposes of special education services. The bill establishes that a decision by the commissioner to provide reimbursement from the fund is final and may not be appealed. The bill authorizes the commissioner to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions, which expire September 1, 2021.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 3437 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.
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