BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2120

By: Bell, Keith

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The board of trustees of an independent school district has an array of duties that board members have the responsibility to implement. One of those duties is to adopt a process through which district personnel, students or the parents or guardians of students, and members of the public may obtain a hearing from the district administrators and the board regarding a complaint or grievance. Although a school board must adopt a process to address complaints and grievances brought to the district's attention, current law does not codify what that process will entail or how long the grievance process will take. This leaves members of the public, district personnel, vendors, parents, and students at the mercy of the school board administration with very little control of the matter and with no reasonable timeline in which the matter will be resolved. C.S.H.B. 2120 seeks to address these issues by codifying the process by which school board administrators in independent school districts process complaints and grievances.

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. 2120 amends the Education Code to require an independent school district's process for a complaint hearing by the district's board of trustees and administrators to include the following components:

· unless otherwise provided by law, an initial administrative hearing and a subsequent opportunity to appeal the decision; and

· unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, provision for a resolution of the complaint not later than 120 calendar days after the date the complaint was filed.  

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 2120 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 does not contain a provision conditioning the requirement for a complaint hearing process to include an initial administrative hearing and subsequent opportunity to appeal a decision on a policy of the applicable board of trustees not conflicting with the requirement.