BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1404
85R9945 CAE-D	By: Hughes
	Education
	4/10/2017
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Afterschool and summer programs can give students a more structured daily routine and improve academic performance. S.B. 503 (83rd Legislature, Regular Session, 2013) began the process of implementing a statewide review and coordination of expanded learning opportunities (ELOs), or educational opportunities outside the regular school day and school year. The bill established a council composed of public education stakeholders to evaluate ELOs and submit a biennial report to the legislature on these programs.

To better evaluate the effectiveness of afterschool and summer programs, more data is needed on their prevalence and participation rates. The Texas Education Agency collects data on ELOs from school districts and charter schools that participate in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) program, a federal program that provided roughly $97 million in the most recent academic year to roughly 35 participants incorporating about 200 campuses. In addition, the Afterschool Alliance has commissioned national polling, from which numbers have been estimated for Texas participation rates in afterschool programs. The polling indicates that approximately 880,000 Texas children participate in afterschool programs and that just over 1.5 million more would participate if such programs were available. In addition, parents with children in an afterschool program in Texas report a high degree of satisfaction with such programs.

While data from the CCLC and the Afterschool Alliance polls is a good start, statewide data on ELOs is not available at the campus level. Only a fraction of Texas school districts and charter schools participate in the CCLC, and polls such as the one funded by Afterschool Alliance offer only the most general statewide statistics. To better evaluate ELOs, S.B. 1404 directs the commissioner of education to gather data on the number of school district and open-enrollment charter school campuses offering voluntary afterschool and summer programs and the number of students participating in such programs.

As proposed, S.B. 1404 amends current law relating to requiring school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to report certain information regarding voluntary after-school programs and voluntary summer programs.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority previously granted to the commissioner of education is modified in SECTION 1 (Section 42.006, Education Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 42.006, Education Code, by amending Subsection (a-1) and adding Subsection (a-2), as follows:

(a-1) Requires the commissioner of education by rule to require each school district and open-enrollment charter school to report through the Public Education Information Management System information regarding:

(1) creates this subdivision from existing text; the number of students:

(A) creates this paragraph from existing text and makes a nonsubstantive change to this paragraph; and

(B) enrolled at a campus of the district or school who are participating in a voluntary after-school program, including the percentage of the student population of the campus attending the program, and in a voluntary summer program, including the percentage of the student population of the campus attending the program; and

(2) the number of district or school campuses that offer a voluntary after-school program or a voluntary summer program.

(a-2) Creates this subsection from existing text. Requires the Texas Education Agency to maintain the information provided under Subsection (a-1) in accordance with that subsection, rather than this subsection.

SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2017.