By: Dutton H.B. No. 2104
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to charter schools and accurately accounting for workforce
development statistics.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 12, Education Code, is amended by adding
new Sections 12.141 and 12.142, to read as follows:
Sec. 12.141. DROP OUT PREVENTION AND RECOVERY OPEN
ENROLLMENT CHARTER HIGH SCHOOLS. (a) To better serve the needs of
at-risk students, improve the quality of the available workforce,
and increase student success rates in obtaining and maintaining
employment, a school that otherwise qualifies as an open enrollment
charter school may apply in a form approved by the commissioner to
be assessed as an open enrollment charter high school.
(b) A compliant application by an open enrollment charter
school to be assessed as a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Charter
High School shall be granted if:
(1) Fifty percent (50%) or more of its students are 17
years of age or older; and
(2) Seventy-five percent (75%) or more of its students
are considered to be at risk of dropping out of school, as defined
by Section 29.081.
Sec. 12.142. ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF DROP OUT
PREVENTION AND RECOVERY OPEN ENROLLMENT CHARTER HIGH SCHOOLS. (a)
Provisions of this Title and other laws made applicable to open
enrollment charter schools by Section 12.104 apply to a Drop Out
Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School, except
as follows:
(1) A student who enrolls at a Drop Out Prevention and
Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School shall not be included
in calculating the drop out or completion rates for the school
unless the student remains enrolled for at least twenty (20) school
days.
(2) Solely for the purpose of assessing the completion
rate for the students, and measuring the success, of a Drop Out
Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School in
educating older students otherwise excluded from the calculation of
the diploma completion rate under NCES standards, a Drop Out
Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School may
request that the commissioner include all students who graduate
from a Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter
High School in the calculation of the school's completion rate. The
calculation methodology under this Section shall be as follows:
Graduates + GED Recipients + Continuers
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Graduates + GED Recipients + Continuers + Dropouts
(3) The commissioner may adopt a set of indicators to
measure the quality of learning and student achievement at a Drop
Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment Charter High School.
(b) A Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Open Enrollment
Charter High School shall be responsible for reporting the
information required to perform the assessments described by this
Section, performing the calculation specified in Section
12.142(a)(b), and all reasonable costs incurred by the commission
in verifying the information and calculation.
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2013-2014
school year.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all of 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, 2013.