88R19157 KJE-F
By: Bell of Kaufman, Dutton, Buckley, H.B. No. 1416
VanDeaver, King of Hemphill, et al.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to accelerated instruction provided to public school
students who fail to achieve satisfactory performance on certain
assessment instruments.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 28.0211, Education Code,
is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 28.0211. [ACCELERATED LEARNING COMMITTEE;]
ACCELERATED INSTRUCTION; MODIFIED TEACHER ASSIGNMENT.
SECTION 2. Section 28.0211, Education Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a), (a-1), (a-2), (a-3), (a-4), (f), (f-1),
(f-2), (f-3), (h), (i), (j), and (n) and adding Subsections (a-7),
(a-8), (a-9), (a-10), (b), and (i-1) to read as follows:
(a) [A school district shall establish an accelerated
learning committee described by Subsection (c) for each student who
does not perform satisfactorily on:
[(1) the third grade mathematics or reading assessment
instrument under Section 39.023;
[(2) the fifth grade mathematics or reading assessment
instrument under Section 39.023; or
[(3) the eighth grade mathematics or reading
assessment instrument under Section 39.023.
[(a-1)] Each time a student fails to perform satisfactorily
on an assessment instrument administered under Section 39.023(a) or
(l) in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grade or
on an end-of-course assessment instrument administered under
Section 39.023(c), other than an assessment instrument developed or
adopted based on alternative academic achievement standards, the
school district in which the student attends school shall provide
to the student accelerated instruction in the applicable subject
area during the subsequent summer or school year.
(a-1) Subject to Subsection (a-7), each time a student fails
to perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument specified
under Subsection (a) that is a mathematics or reading assessment
instrument or the English I, English II, or Algebra I end-of-course
assessment instrument, the school district in which the student
attends school shall [and] either:
(1) allow the student to be assigned a classroom
teacher who is certified as a master, exemplary, or recognized
teacher under Section 21.3521 for the subsequent school year in the
applicable subject area; or
(2) provide the student supplemental instruction
under Subsection (a-4).
(a-2) Accelerated instruction provided during the following
school year under Subsection (a) [(a-1)] may require participation
of the student before or after normal school hours.
(a-3) In providing accelerated instruction under Subsection
(a) [(a-1)], a district may not remove a student, except under
circumstances for which a student enrolled in the same grade level
who is not receiving accelerated instruction would be removed,
from:
(1) instruction in the foundation curriculum and
enrichment curriculum adopted under Section 28.002 for the grade
level in which the student is enrolled; or
(2) recess or other physical activity that is
available to other students enrolled in the same grade level.
(a-4) If a district receives funding under Section 29.0881
or 48.104, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental
Appropriations Act, 2021 (Div. M, Pub. L. No. 116-260), or the
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Pub. L. No. 117-2), then
supplemental instruction provided by a school district under
Subsection (a-1)(2) must:
(1) include targeted instruction in the essential
knowledge and skills for the applicable grade levels and subject
area;
(2) be provided in addition to instruction normally
provided to students in the grade level in which the student is
enrolled;
(3) be provided [for no less than 30 total hours]
during the subsequent summer or school year:
(A) to each student for no less than 15 hours; and
(B) [,] unless the instruction is provided to a
student fully during summer, [include instruction] no less than
once per week during the school year, except as otherwise provided
by commissioner rule to account for school holidays or shortened
school weeks;
(4) be designed to assist the student in achieving
satisfactory performance in the applicable grade level and subject
area;
(5) include effective instructional materials
designed for supplemental instruction;
(6) be provided to a student individually or in a group
of no more than the following number of [three] students, unless the
parent or guardian of each student in the group authorizes a larger
group:
(A) for a student in a grade level below ninth
grade, five students; or
(B) for a student in ninth grade or above, ten
students;
(7) be provided by a person with training in the
applicable instructional materials for the supplemental
instruction and under the oversight of the school district; and
(8) to the extent possible, be provided by one person
for the entirety of the student's supplemental instruction period.
(a-7) The requirements under Subsection (a-1) do not apply
to a student who is retained at a grade level for the school year in
which those requirements would otherwise apply.
(a-8) A parent or guardian of a student to whom supplemental
instruction will be provided under Subsection (a-1)(2) and who
either was administered and failed to perform satisfactorily on an
assessment instrument described by Subsection (a) or was
administered a beginning-of-year assessment instrument aligned
with the essential knowledge and skills for the applicable subject
area may elect to reduce or remove a requirement for that
instruction under Subsection (a-4) or for the student's accelerated
education plan under Subsection (f), if applicable, by submitting a
written request to an administrator at the campus at which the
student is enrolled. A school district may not encourage or direct
a parent or guardian to make an election under this subsection that
would allow the district to not provide supplemental instruction to
the student.
(a-9) The agency shall approve an automated, computerized,
or other augmented method for providing supplemental instruction
under Subsection (a-1)(2) that may be used in lieu of some or all of
the individual or group instruction required under Subsection
(a-4)(6), as appropriate for the applicable grade level and subject
area and a student's academic deficiency. The agency may approve a
method under this subsection only if evidence indicates that the
method is more effective than the individual or group instruction
required under Subsection (a-4)(6). The commissioner shall adopt
rules regarding when a method approved under this subsection may be
used and the requirements under Subsection (a-4) for which the
method may be substituted.
(a-10) A school district that is required to provide to a
student accelerated instruction under Subsection (a) or
supplemental instruction under Subsection (a-1)(2) is not required
to provide additional instruction under either provision to the
student based on the student's failure to perform satisfactorily on
an assessment instrument administered as an optional assessment in
the same subject area in which the district is required to provide
the student the accelerated or supplemental instruction.
(b) For each student who does not perform satisfactorily on
an assessment instrument described by Subsection (a-1) for two or
more consecutive school years in the same subject area, the school
district the student attends shall develop an accelerated education
plan as described by Subsection (f).
(f) Not [An accelerated learning committee described by
Subsection (c) shall, not] later than the start of the subsequent
school year, a school district shall develop an accelerated
education [educational] plan for each [the] student to whom
Subsection (b) applies that provides the necessary accelerated
instruction to enable the student to perform at the appropriate
grade or course level by the conclusion of the school year. The
plan:
(1) must:
(A) identify the reason the student did not
perform satisfactorily on the applicable assessment instrument
described by Subsection (a-1); and
(B) notwithstanding Subsection (a-4)(3)(A),
require the student to be provided with no less than 30 hours, or a
greater number of hours if appropriate, of supplemental instruction
under Subsection (a-4) for each consecutive school year in which
the student does not perform satisfactorily on the assessment
instrument in the applicable subject area described by Subsection
(a-1); and
(2) may require that, as appropriate to ensure the
student performs satisfactorily on the assessment instrument in the
applicable subject area described by Subsection (a-1) at the next
administration of the assessment instrument:
(A) notwithstanding Subsection (a-4)(6), the
student be provided supplemental instruction under Subsection
(a-4) individually or in a group of fewer than the number of
students permitted under Subsection (a-4)(6);
(B) the district expand the times in which
supplemental instruction under Subsection (a-4) is available to the
student;
(C) the student be assigned for the school year
to a specific teacher who is better able to provide accelerated
instruction; and
(D) the district provide any necessary
additional resources to the student.
(f-1) The accelerated education [educational] plan under
Subsection (f) must be documented in writing, and a copy must be
provided to the student's parent or guardian.
(f-2) During the school year, the student shall be monitored
to ensure that the student is progressing in accordance with the
accelerated education plan developed under Subsection (f). [The
district shall administer to the student the assessment instrument
for the grade level in which the student is placed at the time the
district regularly administers the assessment instruments for that
school year.]
(f-3) The board of trustees of each school district shall
adopt a policy consistent with the grievance procedure adopted
under Section 26.011 to allow a parent to contest the content or
implementation of an accelerated education [educational] plan
developed under Subsection (f).
(h) In each instance under this section in which a school
district is specifically required to provide notice or a written
copy to a parent or guardian of a student, the district shall make a
good faith effort to ensure that such notice or copy is provided
either in person or by regular mail and that the notice or copy is
clear and easy to understand and is written in English or the parent
or guardian's native language.
(i) The admission, review, and dismissal committee of a
student who participates in a district's special education program
under Subchapter A, Chapter 29, and who does not perform
satisfactorily on an assessment instrument specified under
Subsection (a) shall, at the student's next annual review meeting,
review the student's participation and progress in, as applicable,
accelerated instruction provided under Subsection (a),
supplemental instruction provided under Subsection (a-1)(2), or an
accelerated education plan developed under Subsection (f). The
student's parent may request, or the district may schedule, an
additional committee meeting if a committee member believes that
the student's individualized education program needs to be modified
based on the requirements under this section. If the district
refuses to convene a committee meeting requested by the student's
parent under this subsection, the district shall provide the parent
with written notice explaining the reason the district refuses to
convene the meeting [and administered under Section 39.023(a) or
(b) must meet to determine the manner in which the student will
participate in an accelerated instruction program under this
section].
(i-1) If a student who attends school in a homebound or
other off-campus instructional arrangement, including at a
residential treatment campus or state hospital, is unable to
participate in an accelerated instruction program required under
this section due to the student's condition, the school district
may determine that the student be provided the accelerated
instruction when the student attends school in an on-campus
instructional setting. If the student's condition prevents the
student from attending school in an on-campus instructional setting
for the school year during which the accelerated instruction is
required to be provided to the student, the district is not required
to provide the accelerated instruction to the student for that
school year.
(j) A school district or open-enrollment charter school
shall provide students required to attend accelerated programs
under this section with transportation to those programs if the
programs occur outside of regular school hours, unless the district
or school does not operate, or contract or agree with another entity
to operate, a transportation system.
(n) Except as requested under Subsection (a-5) or provided
by Subsection (n-1), a student for whom an accelerated education
plan must be developed [who fails to perform satisfactorily on an
assessment instrument specified] under Subsection (b) [(a) and is
promoted to the next grade level] must be assigned, in each [the
subsequent] school year and [in each] subject covered by the
accelerated education plan, [in which the student failed to perform
satisfactorily on an assessment instrument specified under
Subsection (a)] to an appropriately certified teacher who meets all
state and federal qualifications to teach that subject and grade.
SECTION 3. Section 29.0881(e), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(e) A school district or open-enrollment charter school
that receives grant funds under this section may use the funds to:
(1) financially support or train or otherwise prepare
educators and other staff;
(2) pay for agreements with other entities to provide
prekindergarten services; or
(3) pay for accelerated instruction provided under
Section 28.0211 [or 28.0217].
SECTION 4. Section 39.025(b-1), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b-1) A school district shall provide each student who fails
to perform satisfactorily as determined by the commissioner under
Section 39.0241(a) on an end-of-course assessment instrument with
accelerated instruction under Section 28.0211 [28.0217] in the
subject assessed by the assessment instrument.
SECTION 5. The following provisions of the Education Code
are repealed:
(1) Sections 28.0211(c), (f-4), (f-5), (o), and (p);
and
(2) Section 28.0217.
SECTION 6. The changes in law made by this Act to Section
28.0211, Education Code, apply beginning with assessment
instruments administered during the 2023 spring semester.
SECTION 7. The repeal by this Act of Section 28.0217,
Education Code, applies beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
SECTION 8. 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, 2023.