BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4324

By: VanDeaver

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Inefficiencies have been reported in the process by which public high schools share electronic student records with public institutions of higher education. Some such inefficiencies have been attributed to districts' use of various commercial software applications for this purpose, not all of which provide transcript data in the same format as the state-approved records system used by the institutions, with the result that an institution may not have access to all of a student applicant's relevant data elements without time-consuming manual processing. H.B. 4324 seeks to improve the college admissions process for all concerned by authorizing the specification of an approved format for the submission of electronic student records and specifying certain required capabilities of the state-approved records system.

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

H.B. 4324 amends the Education Code to authorize the commissioner of education and the commissioner of higher education to specify an approved format for submission of electronic student records under the electronic student records system. The bill includes among the required capabilities of the system the extraction of data elements from student transcripts in an efficient and effective manner and the provision of those data elements for import into an electronic data system.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.