By: Garcia, Huffines S.B. No. 727
(In the Senate - Filed February 3, 2017; February 21, 2017,
read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
May 3, 2017, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 11,
Nays 0; May 3, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to excluding certain students from the computation of
dropout and completion rates for purposes of public school
accountability.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 39.053(g-1) and (g-2), Education Code,
are amended to read as follows:
(g-1) In computing dropout and completion rates under
Subsections (c)(4)(A)(i) and (B)(ii)(a), the commissioner shall
exclude:
(1) students who are ordered by a court to attend a
high school equivalency certificate program but who have not yet
earned a high school equivalency certificate;
(2) students who were previously reported to the state
as dropouts, including a student who is reported as a dropout,
reenrolls, and drops out again, regardless of the number of times of
reenrollment and dropping out;
(3) students in attendance who are not in membership
for purposes of average daily attendance;
(4) students whose initial enrollment in a school in
the United States in grades 7 through 12 was as unschooled refugees
or asylees as defined by Section 39.027(a-1);
(5) students who are detained at a county
pre-adjudication or post-adjudication juvenile detention facility
and:
(A) in the district exclusively as a function of
having been detained at the [a county detention] facility but are
otherwise not students of the district in which the facility is
located; or
(B) provided services by an open-enrollment
charter school exclusively as the result of having been detained at
the facility; and
(6) students who are incarcerated in state jails and
federal penitentiaries as adults and as persons certified to stand
trial as adults.
(g-2) In computing completion rates under Subsection
(c)(4)(A)(i) [(c)(2)], the commissioner shall exclude students
who:
(1) are at least 18 years of age as of September 1 of
the school year as reported for the fall semester Public Education
Information Management System (PEIMS) submission and have
satisfied the credit requirements for high school graduation;
(2) have not completed their individualized education
program under 19 T.A.C. Section 89.1070(b)(2) and the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1400 et seq.);
and
(3) are enrolled and receiving individualized
education program services.
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2017-2018
school year.
SECTION 3. 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.
* * * * *