BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3808

By: Walle

Higher Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

A report recently developed by the RAND Corporation and American Institutes for Research (AIR) commissioned by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board found early advising to be critical to helping students and families make more strategic decisions about dual credit education. The role of advisors and counselors in promoting student success in dual credit pathways to postsecondary degree completion is deeply important. High-quality guidance can help reduce the number of excess semester credit hours dual credit students obtain, ensure course credits earned through dual credit transfer toward the requirements of a specific major or certificate, and prepare students for the expectations and rigors of college coursework. C.S.H.B. 3808 seeks to address this issue by revising provisions relating to the filing of a degree plan by students at public institutions of higher education.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 2 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3808 amends the Education Code to decrease the minimum semester credit hours earned by a student enrolled at a public institution of higher education in an associate or bachelor's degree program that trigger the requirement to file a degree plan with the institution from 45 credit hours to 30 credit hours. The bill changes the deadline by which the degree plan must be filed as follows:

·       for a student who begins the student's first semester or term with the applicable minimum number of credit hours, from not later than the end of the student's second regular semester or term at the institution to before the end of that semester or term; and

·       for other students, from not later than the end of the second regular semester or term immediately following the semester or term in which the student earned the applicable minimum number of credit hours to before the end of that semester or term.

The bill includes each student enrolled in a course for joint high school and junior college credit in this degree plan requirement and makes conforming changes to a provision relating to a student enrolled in a multidisciplinary studies associate degree program established at a junior college.

C.S.H.B. 3808 replaces the authorization for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to adopt rules as necessary for the administration of the provisions requiring the filing of a degree plan with a requirement for the coordinating board to do so and requires those rules to include rules to ensure compliance with these provisions. The bill applies beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year.

C.S.H.B. 3808 repeals Section 51.9685(c-1), Education Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3808 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute changes the deadline by which a student must file a degree plan with the applicable institution.