Honorable Brandon Creighton, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB418 by Paxton (relating to the transfer of students between public schools.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB418, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted : a negative impact of ($2,793,807) through the biennium ending August 31, 2025.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2024
($1,257,136)
2025
($1,536,671)
2026
($1,123,303)
2027
($1,123,303)
2028
($1,123,303)
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2023
2024
($1,257,136)
10.0
2025
($1,536,671)
10.0
2026
($1,123,303)
10.0
2027
($1,123,303)
10.0
2028
($1,123,303)
10.0
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would establish conditions and restrictions governing the transfer of students within a district and to another district.
School districts would be required to establish capacity at each school and grade level in the district and collect data on student transfers and denials. School districts would be required to report the data to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the agency would be required to post a report summarizing the transfer data. The Commissioner would be required to adopt rules necessary to implement an admissions lottery and waitlist for school districts that would receive more applications than they would have capacity for.
Every six years, the agency would be required to conduct and publish a study of statewide transfer trends. The bill would require the agency to annually audit transfer practices of ten percent of school districts.
Methodology
TEA assumes five FTEs would be required for rulemaking, district support and assistance, and other agency reporting requirements. TEA assumes four FTEs would be required to perform the annual auditing functions that would be required under the bill. Finally, the agency assumes one FTE would be required as indirect support. The agency assumes that the fiscal impact of these ten FTEs would be $1.1 million each fiscal year.
Technology
The agency assumes that the cost to develop and implement the requirements in the Texas Student Data System would be $137,789 fiscal year 2024 and $413,368 in fiscal year 2025.
Local Government Impact
This analysis assumes there would be a fiscal impact to school districts. There would be an impact to certain districts who would accept transfers and charge the transfer students in addition to what the students would generate in state funding. The agency does not collect this information and therefore cannot determine how much this would cost those districts.
Districts would be required to report transfer data to the agency and the Board of Trustees of a district would be required to determine transfer capacity at each district campus. The Board of a school district would also be required to adopt an admissions policy that would meet the requirements of the bill.