S.B. No. 1764
AN ACT
relating to the dissemination of information regarding the cost of
attending public and private institutions of higher education and
regarding the availability of financial aid to assist in paying
that cost.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 61, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 61.0777 to read as follows:
Sec. 61.0777. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR PUBLICATION OF COST OF
ATTENDANCE INFORMATION. (a) The board shall prescribe uniform
standards intended to ensure that information regarding the cost of
attendance at institutions of higher education is available to the
public in a manner that is consumer-friendly and readily
understandable to prospective students and their families. In
developing the standards, the board shall examine common and
recommended practices regarding the publication of such
information and shall solicit recommendations and comments from
institutions of higher education and interested private or
independent institutions of higher education.
(b) The uniform standards must:
(1) address all of the elements that constitute the
total cost of attendance, including tuition and fees, room and
board costs, book and supply costs, transportation costs, and other
personal expenses; and
(2) prescribe model language to be used to describe
each element of the cost of attendance.
(c) Each institution of higher education that offers an
undergraduate degree or certificate program shall:
(1) prominently display on the institution's Internet
website in accordance with the uniform standards prescribed under
this section information regarding the cost of attendance at the
institution by a full-time entering first-year student; and
(2) conform to the uniform standards in any electronic
or printed materials intended to provide to prospective
undergraduate students information regarding the cost of
attendance at the institution.
(d) Each institution of higher education shall consider the
uniform standards prescribed under this section when providing
information to the public or to prospective students regarding the
cost of attendance at the institution by nonresident students,
graduate students, or students enrolled in professional programs.
(e) The board shall prescribe requirements for an
institution of higher education to provide on the institution's
Internet website consumer-friendly and readily understandable
information regarding student financial aid opportunities. The
required information must be provided in connection with the
information displayed under Subsection (c)(1) and must include a
link to the primary federal student financial aid Internet website
intended to assist persons applying for student financial aid.
(f) The board shall provide on the board's Internet website
a program or similar tool that will compute for a person accessing
the website the estimated net cost of attendance for a full-time
entering first-year student attending an institution of higher
education. The board shall require each institution to provide the
board with the information the board requires to administer this
subsection.
(g) The board shall prescribe the initial standards and
requirements under this section not later than January 1, 2010.
Institutions of higher education shall comply with the standards
and requirements not later than April l, 2010. This subsection
expires January 1, 2011.
(h) The board shall encourage private or independent
institutions of higher education approved under Subchapter F to
participate in the tuition equalization grant program, to the
greatest extent practicable, to prominently display the
information described by Subsections (a) and (b) on their Internet
websites in accordance with the standards established under those
subsections, and to conform to those standards in electronic and
printed materials intended to provide to prospective undergraduate
students information regarding the cost of attendance at the
institutions. The board shall also encourage those institutions to
include on their Internet websites a link to the primary federal
student financial aid Internet website intended to assist persons
applying for student financial aid.
(i) The board shall make the program or tool described by
Subsection (f) available to private or independent institutions of
higher education described by Subsection (h), and those
institutions shall make that program or tool, or another program or
tool that complies with the requirements for the net price
calculator required under Section 132(h)(3), Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Section 1015a), available on their Internet
websites not later than the date by which the institutions are
required by Section 132(h)(3) to make the net price calculator
publicly available on their Internet websites.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2009.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1764 passed the Senate on
May 5, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 29, Nays 0; and that the
Senate concurred in House amendment on May 30, 2009, by the
following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1764 passed the House, with
amendment, on May 27, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 148,
Nays 0, one present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor