Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3853 by Coleman (Relating to the availability of certain behavioral health professionals at certain public schools.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB3853, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($103,535,828) through the biennium ending August 31, 2019.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2018
$0
2019
($103,535,828)
2020
($105,606,544)
2021
($107,718,675)
2022
($109,873,048)
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Probable Savings/(Cost) from Foundation School Fund 193
2018
$0
$0
2019
($6,592,169)
($96,943,659)
2020
($6,724,012)
($98,882,532)
2021
($6,858,492)
($100,860,183)
2022
($6,995,662)
($102,877,386)
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Education Code to authorize additional state aid for behavioral health professionals within the Foundation School Program and require each district that receives funding for this purpose to assign a behavioral health professional to each campus in the district or ensure the services of a behavioral health professional are provided to students at each campus. The bill specifies that the Commissioner shall determine the amount sufficient to assist districts in employing or contracting with behavioral health professionals.
The bill would apply beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
Methodology
Based on information provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and their analysis of relevant district data available in the Public Education Information Management System, an additional 1,455 full-time equivalents (FTEs) would be required to implement the provisions of this bill.
TEA assumed only the districts who would be hiring additional FTEs after the effective date of the bill would receive additional state aid for behavioral health professionals. If all behavioral health professionals employed by school districts and charter schools would be eligible for additional state aid under the provisions of this bill, estimated costs would increase.
TEA indicated that the average salary for behavioral health professionals was $62,785 in fiscal year 2016. TEA also indicated an average annual growth rate in behavioral health professional salaries of 2 percent in the previous two fiscal years. Applying this average growth rate to the estimated number of new FTEs required to implement bill provides an estimated cost of $96.9 million in fiscal year 2019, increasing to $102.9 million in fiscal year 2022.
The state would incur additional costs in the form of contributions to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) for the additional education professionals. Based on a state TRS contribution rate of 6.8 percent, the projected additional state cost of the additional teachers would be $6.6 million in fiscal year 2019, increasing to $7.0 million in fiscal year 2022.
Local Government Impact
School districts receiving state aid under the program would be required to assign a behavioral health professional to each campus in the district or ensure the services of a behavioral health professional are provided to students at each campus, although the district would receive additional state aid to cover the cost of the behavioral health professionals.
Source Agencies:
520 Board of Examiners of Psychologists, 701 Texas Education Agency