BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.S.B. 1016
886R22699 JES-F	By: Powell
	Education
	4/26/2019
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Current law requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to �periodically� conduct an audit of educator professional development requirements imposed by federal and state laws and rules, and by local school districts, in an effort to eliminate and consolidate conflicting or duplicative requirements. The impetus for the professional development requirements audit was for the state to adopt practices similar to those used in other states (e.g. Arizona and Georgia) to identify areas of strength and need related to educators� professional learning, as well as to guide the planning, facilitation, implementation, and evaluation of professional learning in order to maximize its impact and investment. TEA conducted the audit once, issuing a report in November 2014. However, since that time, the state has continued to add a number of additional educator training requirements, including suicide prevention training, digital learning training, training regarding appropriate relationships/boundaries with students, and grief and trauma-informed practices training, among others.

Additionally, this legislative session in particular, with the increased focus on school safety and mental health, there are a large number of educator training bills filed.

Given this dynamic, it is more important than ever that we have some sort of regular review process by TEA in which TEA conducts an inventory of educator training requirements in order to make any recommendations about ways to ensure that training is not duplicative, remains relevant, and does not become merely a compliance exercise because of limited time.

Purpose:

C.S.S.B. 1016 simply seeks to instate a review interval of �at least once every four years� to current law requiring TEA to conduct an audit of the professional development requirements applicable to educators in this state. It also adds the terms �continuing education� and �training requirements� to the scope of the professional development requirements required to be audited. Finally, it adds language requiring TEA to consider stakeholder input on the value of maintaining existing topic-specific state-mandated training requirements; and for TEA to seek to eliminate unnecessary topic-specific training requirements.

C.S.S.B. 1016 amends current law relating to an audit by the Texas Education Agency of public school professional development training 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 Sections 21.4513(a) and (b), Education Code, as follows:

(a) Requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA), using only available funds and resources from public or private sources, to conduct an audit at least once every four years, rather than periodically, of the professional development requirements applicable to educators in this state and any other continuing education and training requirements, including state and federal requirements and requirements imposed by school districts.

(b) Requires TEA, based on audit results, with input from stakeholders and organizations that represent educators, to consider the value of maintaining existing state-mandated training requirements relating to specific topics and seek to eliminate any unnecessary topic-specific training requirements, eliminate any conflicting requirements, and consolidate any duplicative requirements through the following methods, as appropriate, rather than requiring TEA, based on state audits, to seek to eliminate conflicting requirements and consolidate duplicative requirements through the following methods, as appropriate:

(1)�(3) makes no changes to these subdivisions.

SECTION 2. Requires TEA, not later than December 31, 2020, to complete an audit of professional development training requirements as required by Section 21.4513, Education Code, as amended by this Act.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2019.