BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1854
85R12539 PAM-D	By: Uresti
	Education
	4/10/2017
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Teachers are the drivers of our state's public education system, and their daily tasks include curriculum building, teaching, tutoring, building relationships with students and parents, attending trainings to improve their professional skills, and more. Currently, teachers are being asked to allocate time to complete duplicative paperwork every school year.

This time spent completing paperwork takes away time from tasks that are more pertinent to providing Texas children with a quality education. Districts need to review what paperwork they are requiring of teachers in order to ensure that no requirements are duplicative or not necessary at the time. The state recognizes that teachers should not have to fill out unneeded paperwork throughout the school year, and current law requires school boards to review paperwork requirements imposed on classroom teachers and transfer to existing non-instructional staff a reporting task that can reasonably be accomplished by that staff.

S.B. 1854 requires each campus level committee established under Section 11.253, Education Code, to review paperwork requirements and requests imposed on teachers every six months. As part of the review process, the committees must make recommendations to their school district's board of trustees regarding the transfer of paperwork tasks to existing non-instructional staff when reasonable to do so to help guide the school board, which makes the ultimate decision.

The committees are currently involved in the areas of planning, budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development, and school organization, so this requirement would complement those efforts.

As proposed, S.B. 1854 amends current law relating to requiring the review of public school district� paperwork to limit paperwork requirements.

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 11.164, Education Code, by adding Subsection (b-1), as follows:

(b-1) Requires each campus-level committee established under Section 11.253 (Campus Planning and Site-Based Decision Making) to, not less than once every six months, review paperwork requirements imposed on classroom teachers and make recommendations to the board of trustees of the school district regarding the transfer to existing noninstructional staff of a reporting task that can reasonably be accomplished by that staff as authorized by Subsection (b).

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

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