BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2946

By: King, Ken

Juvenile Justice & Family Issues

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Juvenile justice alternative education programs (JJAEPs) are designed to help students by reducing delinquency, providing accountability, rehabilitating students, and catching them up to grade level. Under current law, these programs operate on instructional days, while traditional ISDs operate on instructional minutes. In the 84th Legislative Session, H.B. 2610 changed school time calculations for state funding from days to minutes, creating flexibility for school schedules. In the 85th Legislative Session, H.B. 2442 created a separate minutes requirement for certain alternative education programs, such as dropout recovery schools, but JJAEP programs were not included in this exemption. C.S.H.B. 2946 seeks to require JJAEPs to provide 43,200 minutes of instructional time per year. This change will bring requirements for JJAEPs into alignment with other alternative education programs.

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. 2946 amends the Education Code to change the amount of instructional time that a juvenile justice alternative education program must provide, unless it successfully applies for a waiver, from a minimum operational period of seven hours per day and 180 days per year to a minimum of 43,200 minutes of instructional time per year. The bill applies beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2946 differs from the introduced only by including a Texas Legislative Council enrolling draft number in the footer.