The bill would modify the Foundation School Program (FSP) funding entitlement for charter schools related to the Small and Mid-Sized District Allotment.
The bill would provide additional FSP funding to districts related to an annexation that occurs on or after June 1, 2013.
The bill would redesign the Minimum Salary Schedule (MSS). Contingent on enactment of HB 11, or similar legislation related to establishing a residency partnership program and authorizing the issuance of a residency educator certificate, the bill would increase the MSS and would add a clause for teachers holding a residency educator certificate. If HB 11, or similar legislation related to establishing a residency partnership program and authorizing the issuance of a residency educator certificate, does not pass, the bill would increase the MSS. The bill would require a district to use 50 percent of any savings in required contributions to TRS retirement related to the increase in the MSS to increase the average compensation for full-time classroom teachers, librarians, counselors, and nurses.
The bill would establish the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) Program. The bill would create the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (RPEP) program, which would allow rural school districts to partner with at least one other school district and a coordinating entity to offer college and career pathways. The bill would create financial incentives for R-PEP including a grant to assist with R-PEP planning and implementation, an allotment for R-PEP programs, and college, career, and military readiness outcomes bonuses for R-PEP programs.
The Commissioner would establish a grant program to assist in the planning and implementation of a partnership under the program. No more than 15 percent of the funds appropriated for the grant program could be used for administering the program.
The bill would reduce district contributions to the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) and School for the Deaf (TSD) for districts who do not retain all of their maintenance and operations property taxes due to paying recapture. The Commissioner would determine the total amount that the TSBVI and TSD would have received from school districts in accordance with this section if the section had not been amended and provide the amount to TSBVI and TSD.
The bill would increase the basic allotment from $6,160 to $6,250 in fiscal year 2024 and would require districts to use 50 percent of the basic allotment increase and increases related to the Small and Mid-Sized Allotment to increase compensation for classroom teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses. The bill would increase the basic allotment to at least $6,300 in fiscal year 2025 and would require the Commissioner to adjust the basic allotment in fiscal year 2025 by a factor equal to the average annual percentage increase of the Texas Consumer Price Index for the preceding 10 years.
The bill would provide for enrollment-based funding for sections of the Foundation School Program (FSP) under TEC, Chapters 46 and 48. The bill would require that the Commissioner of Education establish a method for determining average enrollment for the purposes of enrollment-based funding.
The bill would increase the weights for the Compensatory Education Allotment and would
restructure funding for Career and Technology Education (CTE) students to include funding through the Basic Allotment and additional weighted funding through the CTE Allotment. The bill would amend the Fast Growth Allotment to remove the statewide cap. The bill would also increase the transportation allotment for regular eligible students to $1.54 per mile and would increase the transportation allotment for special education students to $1.28 per mile. The bill would extend the Formula Transition Grant expiration from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2030. The bill would also amend the Tax Code to allow school districts to adopt $0.06 of enrichment tax effort without a tax ratification election.
The bill would establish the Special Education Full Individual and Initial Evaluation allotment which would provide districts with $500, or a greater amount by appropriation, for each student for whom the district conducts a full individual and initial evaluation.
The bill would transition special education funding in the basic allotment to an intensity of service model. The bill would provide for a special education service group allotment under which the commissioner would establish four service groups for funding determinations. The bill would also establish the Special Education Transition Funding allotment.
The bill would establish the Fine Arts Allotment that would provide an allotment for each grade 6 to grade 12 student in average daily attendance enrolled in an approved fine arts education course with the basic allotment, or, if applicable, the sum of the basic allotment and the allotment under Section 48.101 to which the district is entitled, multiplied by 0.008. The agency would be required to publish a list of approved courses annually.
The bill would add the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) Allotment and Outcome Bonus. For each student in average daily attendance in an R-PEP college or career pathway, a school district would be entitled to an allotment equal to the basic allotment or, if applicable, the sum of the basic allotment and the small to midsized district allotment to which the district is entitled, multiplied by 1.15 if the student is educationally disadvantaged; or 1.11 if the student is not educationally disadvantaged. For each school district, the commissioner would be required to determine the minimum number of annual graduates of a R-PEP college or career pathway required to demonstrate college, career, or military readiness. For each R-PEP graduate above the threshold, the district would be entitled to an annual outcomes bonus of $2,000 if the graduate is educationally disadvantaged; $1,000 if the graduate is not educationally disadvantaged; and $2,000 if the graduate is enrolled in a special education program, regardless of whether the graduate is educationally disadvantaged.
The bill would establish the Advanced Mathematics Pathway Allotment at $10 per eligible high school student and an additional weight of 0.1 multiplied by the basic allotment for eligible students in a small or midsized school district. The bill would establish the Book Safety Allotment at $3 per student in average enrollment, or a greater amount provided by appropriation.
The bill would establish the Salary Transition Allotment. In fiscal years 2024-26, a school district would be entitled to an annual allotment equal to the difference between the employer contributions under the new MSS and under current law MSS for the 2022-23 school year less the difference in maintenance and operations revenue for the current school year less the maintenance and operations revenue for the current school year assuming current law TEC, Sections 48.051 and 48.101. The allotment provided under this section would decrease over time, to two-thirds in fiscal year 2027, one-third in fiscal year 2028, and zero in fiscal year 2029.
The bill would require TEA, the Division for Early Childhood Intervention Services of the Health and Human Services Commission, and the Educational Resource Center on Deafness at TSD to jointly prepare and post a report that includes for each child the percentage of the instructional day the child spends on average in a general education setting.
The bill would amend TEC 48.257 to provide for a hold harmless provision for certain recapture districts that were beneficiaries of the Formula Transition Grant in the 2023-24 school year and adopted an enrichment tax rate of at least 5 cents for the 2022-23 school year. The select districts would receive an adjustment to recapture so as to enable them to retain the maintenance and operations revenue (including formula transition grant funds) per student in ADA to which they were entitled in the 2023-24 school year.