BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1662

By: Burns

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Last session, H.B. 750 was signed into law by the governor. That bill required an independent school district to post on its website the district's employment policy and the full text of any regulations referenced in the policy. The bill required a district to make any forms referenced in the policy available on an intranet website accessible to its employees or, if they did not have a website, at a designated administrative office. Since the passage of H.B. 750, several districts have not been complying with making their employment policy available to the staff of their district. When a teacher has filed a grievance over an issue that should be addressed by regulations, they have been told that their grievance is untimely even though the district has failed to post the regulations. H.B. 1662 seeks to remedy this issue by defining the exact documents that need to be posted and providing for the grievance to be considered timely if the district has not posted the documents.

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. 1662 amends the Education Code to specify that, for purposes of the requirement for an independent school district to post its employment policy and any regulations referenced in the policy on the district's website, such regulations include the following:

· any written document issued under a delegation of authority by the district's board of trustees; or

· any written document that implements a policy adopted by the board, including compensation plans, employee leave conditions and procedures, and professional development requirements.

The bill requires that a grievance presented by a district employee that is based on a violation of such a regulation be considered timely, regardless of when the grievance is presented, if the district has not provided a copy of the regulation to the employee or complied with the posting requirement or the requirement to make forms referenced in the policy available.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.