BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3877

By: Ramos

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Concerns have been raised that, although open-enrollment charter schools receive state funding, information regarding how that funding is used and spent is not necessarily easily accessible on a charter school's website. C.S.H.B. 3877 seeks to address these concerns by ensuring that an open‑enrollment charter school's financial statement is easily accessible on the charter school's website.

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 this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3877 amends the Local Government Code to revise the requirement for the governing body of an open‑enrollment charter school to take action to ensure that the charter school's annual financial statement is made available in the manner provided by state public information law and posted continuously on the charter school's website:

· by changing the annual financial statements for which the governing body is required to take such action from the charter school's annual financial statement to the charter school's three most recent annual financial statements; and

· by specifying that such posting is to be made through a clearly identifiable link that appears in a prominent place on the home page of the website.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3877 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 annual financial statements that the governing body of a charter school is required to make available as provided by state public information law and post on the charter school's website from the charter school's annual financial statement to the charter school's three most recent annual financial statements.