Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1697 by Paxton (Relating to allowing parents and guardians to elect for a student to repeat or retake a course or grade.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would allow public school students in grades pre-kindergarten through twelve to repeat grades or courses, under certain circumstances. The bill establishes processes to resolve disagreements in the event that a school district did not agree with a parent or guardian's decision to retain a student in a grade.
The bill would exempt students who had been retained under the provisions of the bill from the definition of "at-risk of dropping out" for the purposes of designing and implementing instructional services. The bill would also require the Texas Education Agency to study whether students such as these should be considered "at-risk."
The bill would also allow a student retained under the provisions of the bill to generate average daily attendance for the purposes of determining a school district's entitlement under the state's school finance system.
The provisions of the bill related to determining average daily attendance are not anticipated to be significant. This analysis assumes that any costs associated with the conducting the study could be absorbed using existing resources.
Local Government Impact
Local Education Agencies may experience some costs associated with the provisions of the bill. This could include costs related to convening retention committees in order to settle disputes and related to updating policies and procedures to accommodate students who are retained. However, those costs are not anticipated to be significant.