BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1613

By: Lopez

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Teacher literacy achievement academies are essentially 12-part training sessions on the science of reading. Some of the content covered during these sessions includes how to help students decode the relationships between sounds and letters as well as how to help them understand the sound structure of words. This type of training is important because students who do not achieve reading proficiency by the third grade are less likely to finish school on time and increasingly likely to drop out of school before earning their diplomas. C.S.H.B. 1613 postpones the deadline by which certain educators are required to attend these academies in order to accommodate the difficulties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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. 1613 amends the Education Code to postpone from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2023‑2024 school year the deadline by which each public school district and open-enrollment charter school must ensure that requirements for certain educators to attend a teacher literacy achievement academy have been implemented, as follows:

· not later than the 2023-2024 school year, each classroom teacher in kindergarten or first, second, or third grade and each principal at a campus with those grade levels must have attended such an academy or demonstrated proficiency in the science of teaching reading on an applicable certification examination in accordance with State Board of Education rules by that deadline; and

· beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, each classroom teacher and each principal initially employed at an applicable grade level or campus must have attended such an academy before the first year of that placement.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1613 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 includes an alternative requirement that did not appear in the original for public school districts and open‑enrollment charter schools to ensure that teachers and principals demonstrate proficiency in the science of teaching reading on a certification examination not later than the 2023-2024 school year.