BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 991

By: Bettencourt

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Chronic absenteeism is not currently defined under state law. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the term is defined as a student missing 10 percent of instructional days during the school year. The department also reports that students are seven times more likely to drop out of school if they are chronically absent one year between 8th and 12th grade. Although students determined to be at risk of dropping out receive additional support services under state law, chronic absenteeism is not included as a category of at-risk students. The bill sponsor has informed the committee that despite the significant impact of chronic absenteeism on students' persistence and graduation rates, there is little data collected or reported to explain what factors may cause chronic absenteeism. S.B. 991 seeks to ensure that chronically absent students receive the support they need to graduate high school by defining what constitutes chronic absenteeism, categorizing a chronically absent student as a student at risk of dropping out of school, and requiring the Texas Education Agency to collect and report specified data on those students. The bill also provides for such categorization and reporting with respect to truant students.

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

S.B. 991 amends the Education Code to include a chronically absent student and a student who is required to attend school, is not exempt from that requirement, and fails to attend school without excuse for 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year among the students for which each public school district must provide accelerated instruction as a student at risk of dropping out of school. The bill defines "chronically absent student" as a student who is absent from school for more than 10 percent of the school's required operation and instructional time within a school year or an enrollment period that exceeds 30 instructional days.

S.B. 991 revises the information that must be reported annually by each district and open‑enrollment charter school through PEIMS as follows:

· with respect to the number of children, disaggregated by campus and grade, who are required to attend school, are not exempt from that requirement, and fail to attend school without excuse for 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year, specifies that the number of such children is reported in total and disaggregated by whether the child is receiving instructional services as a student at risk of dropping out of school; and

· includes information regarding the number of chronically absent students enrolled at each campus in the district or school, in total and disaggregated by whether the student is receiving compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instructional services.

The bill requires the Texas Education Agency to annually aggregate at the campus and district levels and make publicly available the aforementioned data on truancy and student chronic absenteeism collected through the PEIMS reports.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.