BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1660
	By: Taylor, Larry
	Education
	4/19/2017
	As Filed

 

 

 

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

Last session, H.B. 2610, also referred to as the "Minutes Bill," required school districts to provide 75,600 minutes of instruction.  The purpose of H.B. 2610 was to allow schools greater flexibility in making up time from missed school days due to extreme weather conditions.  However, H.B. 2610 had unintended consequences.  Without Texas Education Agency (TEA) intervention, many charter schools and pre-kindergarten programs across the state would have seen a significant reduction in funding before the 85th legislative session. 

 

S.B. 1660 attempts to address this problem by:

• Allowing districts to choose between minutes or hours or instruction.
• Removing statutory language defining the word "day" as 420 minutes of instruction.  Instead, S.B. 1660 ties the definition to the minimum number of instructional hours required for the student to be considered full-time under Section 42.005 of the Education Code. 
• Requiring school districts to notify the commissioner of education of their decision.  

 

As proposed, S.B. 1660 amends current law relating to the calculation of average daily attendance for dropout recovery charter schools.

 

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 Section 42.005, Education Code, by adding Subsection (a-1), as follows:

 

(a-1) Requires the average daily attendance, for an open enrollment charter school that operates a dropout recovery program under Section 12.1141(c) (relating to using the discretionary consideration process for an open-enrollment charter school seeking charter renewal, including the charter acting as a certain dropout recovery school), to be calculated based on the district providing 43,200 minutes of instruction, excluding recess and intermissions.

 

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