BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 727
85R5894 PAM-F	By: Garcia
	Education
	4/26/2017
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Currently, students in a Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) facility can be served by a traditional ISD or a charter school for educational services.  Students in a TJJD facility who are provided educational services by a public school district are not counted for the purposes of dropout and completion rates.  However, if a TJJD facility provides educational services to its students  through a charter school, the same exemption does not apply.  S.B. 727 would simply extend the same dropout and completion rate exemption for students receiving educational services through a charter school that currently exists for public schools. Currently, students being served while in a TJJD facility are not counted for the purposes of dropout and completion rates if they are receiving education services through a public school district. However, if a TJJD facility is being operated by a charter school, the same exemption does not apply. Additionally, students with disabilities are allowed by federal law to remain in school until they are 22 years old in order to receive transition services and complete their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Despite federal law, if they stay in school to complete their IEP, they are not counted as graduates.

S.B. 727 would simply extend the same dropout and completion rate exemption for students receiving educational services through a charter school that currently exists for public schools. S.B. 727 additionally exempts students who have completed their requirements for graduation but remain in school while completing their IEP.

We have confirmed support from the Texas Charter School Association, and there is no known opposition at this time

As proposed, S.B. 727 amends current law relating to excluding certain students from the computation of dropout and completion rates for purposes of public school accountability.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Sections 39.053(g-1) and (g-2), Education Code, as follows:

(g-1) Requires the commissioner of education (commissioner), in computing dropout and completion rates under Sections (c)(4)(A)(i) (relating to the use of dropout rates computed in accordance with certain standards for evaluating the performance of high school campuses and districts) and (c)(4)(B)(ii)(a) (relating to the use of dropout rates for evaluating performance of middle and junior high school, elementary school campuses, and districts), to exclude students who are detained at a county pre-adjudication or post-adjudication juvenile detention facility, and in the district exclusively as a function of having been detained at the facility but are otherwise not students of the district in which the facility is located, or provided services by an open-enrollment charter school exclusively as the result of having been detained at the facility. Deletes existing text specifying a county detention facility.

(g-2) Requires the commissioner, in computing completion rates under Section (c)(4)(A)(i), rather than Section (c)(2) (relating to the second evaluation domain of indicators of achievement that focuses on performance on certain performance standards), to exclude certain students.

SECTION 2. Provides that this Act applies beginning with the 2017-2018 school year.

SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2017.