85R25895 KKA-F
By: Moody H.B. No. 3437
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3437:
By: VanDeaver C.S.H.B. No. 3437
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a notice of educational rights and recovery by school
districts and open-enrollment charter schools of costs for certain
student evaluations.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 29, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 29.023 to read as follows:
Sec. 29.023. NOTICE OF RIGHTS; COST RECOVERY PROGRAM. (a)
The agency shall develop a notice for distribution as provided by
Subsection (c) and posting on the agency's Internet website that
indicates:
(1) the change made from 2016 to 2017 in reporting
requirements for school districts and open-enrollment charter
schools regarding the special education representation indicator
adopted in the Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System
Manual; and
(2) in plain language, the rights of a child under both
federal and state law and the general process available to initiate
a referral of a child for a full individual and initial evaluation
under Section 29.004 to determine the child's eligibility for
special education services.
(b) A school district or open-enrollment charter school
shall include in the notice developed by the agency under
Subsection (a) information indicating where the local processes and
procedures for initiating a referral for special education services
eligibility evaluation may be found.
(c) By a date established by the commissioner, each school
district or open-enrollment charter school shall provide the notice
to the parent of each child who attends school in the district or at
the school at any time during the 2017-2018 school year. A school
district or open-enrollment charter school shall also make the
notice available on request to any person. The notice must be
available in English and Spanish, and a school district or
open-enrollment charter school shall make a good faith effort to
provide the notice in the parent's native language if the parent's
native language is a language other than English or Spanish.
(d) The notice is in addition to requirements imposed by
Section 26.0081.
(e) Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, from federal
funds available for this purpose, the agency shall establish a
reimbursement fund from which school districts and open-enrollment
charter schools may apply and receive cost reimbursement if the
district or school experiences a significant increase from the
preceding school year in the number of full individual and initial
evaluations conducted under Section 29.004. A decision by the
commissioner to provide reimbursement from the fund is final and
may not be appealed.
(f) The commissioner may adopt rules necessary to implement
this section.
(g) This section expires September 1, 2021.
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, 2017.