H.B. No. 2209
AN ACT
relating to establishing the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership
(R-PEP) program and creating an allotment and outcomes bonus under
the Foundation School Program to support the program.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter Z, Chapter 29, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 29.912 to read as follows:
Sec. 29.912. RURAL PATHWAY EXCELLENCE PARTNERSHIP (R-PEP)
PROGRAM. (a) In this section, "program" means the Rural Pathway
Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) program.
(b) The commissioner shall establish and administer the
Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) program to
incentivize and support multidistrict, cross-sector, rural college
and career pathway partnerships that expand opportunities for
underserved students to succeed in school and life while promoting
economic development in rural areas.
(b-1) The commissioner shall ensure that agency employees
assigned to administer the program have experience with or training
in the procedures relating to a school district contracting to
partner to operate a district campus under Section 11.174.
(c) The program must enable an eligible school district that
has fewer than 1,600 students in average daily attendance to
partner with at least one other school district located within a
distance of 100 miles to offer a broader array of robust college and
career pathways. Each partnership must:
(1) offer college and career pathways that align with
regional labor market projections for high-wage, high-demand
careers; and
(2) be managed by a coordinating entity that:
(A) has or will have at the time students are
served under the partnership the capacity to effectively coordinate
the partnership;
(B) has entered into a performance agreement
approved by the board of trustees of each partnering school
district that confers on the coordinating entity the same authority
with respect to pathways offered under the partnership provided to
an entity that contracts to operate a district campus under Section
11.174;
(C) is an eligible entity as defined by Section
12.101(a); and
(D) has on the entity's governing board as either
voting or ex officio members, or has on an advisory body,
representatives of each partnering school district and members of
regional higher education and workforce organizations.
(d) The performance agreement described by Subsection
(c)(2)(B) must:
(1) include ambitious and measurable performance
goals and progress measures tied to current college, career, and
military readiness outcomes and longitudinal postsecondary
completion and employment-related outcomes;
(2) allocate responsibilities for accessing and
managing progress and outcome information and annually publish that
information on the Internet website of each partnering district and
the coordinating entity;
(3) authorize the coordinating entity to optimize the
value of each college and career pathway offered through the
partnership by:
(A) determining scheduling;
(B) adding or removing a pathway;
(C) selecting and assigning pathway-specific
personnel;
(D) developing and exercising final approval of
pathway budgets, which must include at least 80 percent of the state
and local funding to which each partnering school district is
entitled under Sections 48.106, 48.110, and 48.118; and
(E) determining any other matter critical to the
efficacy of the pathways; and
(4) provide that any eligible student enrolled in a
partnering school district may participate in a college or career
pathway offered through the partnership.
(e) An employee of a coordinating entity that manages a
partnership under the program is eligible for membership in and
benefits from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas if the
employee would be eligible for membership and benefits by holding a
similar position at a partnering school district. An employee is
eligible for membership under this subsection if a partnership
would be authorized to participate in the program, as determined by
the commissioner, but for the maximum expenditure established in
Section 48.118(f).
(f) A student enrolled in a college or career pathway
offered through a partnership under the program is not considered
for accountability purposes under Chapter 39 to have dropped out of
high school or failed to complete the curriculum requirements for
high school graduation until the sixth anniversary of the student's
first day in high school.
(g) A school district proposing to enter into a performance
agreement under this section shall notify the commissioner of the
district's intent to enter into the agreement. The commissioner
shall establish procedures for a district to notify the
commissioner, including establishing the period within which
notification is required before the school year in which the
proposed agreement would take effect, and to provide any additional
information required by the commissioner.
(h) In authorizing partnerships to participate in the
program, the commissioner shall give priority to partnerships in
which participating districts contract with a coordinating entity
that has at least two years' experience or employs an executive
officer with at least two years' experience managing college and
career pathways under a performance contract.
(i) Not later than the 60th day after the date the
commissioner receives notification of a proposed agreement and all
other information required by the commissioner, the commissioner
shall notify the school districts whether the proposed performance
agreement is approved and the partnering districts are authorized
for participation in the program.
(j) The commissioner shall make grants available for use by
a coordinating entity for a two-year period to assist with costs
associated with the planning, development, establishment, or
expansion, as applicable, of partnerships under the program using a
portion of state funds allocated under Section 48.118 as well as
money appropriated for that purpose, federal funds, and any other
funds available. The commissioner may award a grant only to a
coordinating entity that has entered into a performance agreement
approved under Subsection (i) or, if in the planning stage, has
entered into a memorandum of understanding to enter into a
performance agreement, unless the source of funds does not permit a
grant to the coordinating entity, in which case the grant shall be
made to a participating school district acting as fiscal agent.
Eligible use of grant funds shall include planning, development,
establishment, or expansion of partnerships under the program. The
commissioner may use not more than 15 percent of the money allocated
for the grants to cover the cost of administering grants awarded
under the program and to provide technical assistance and support
to partnerships under the program.
(k) The commissioner shall adopt rules as necessary to
implement this section, including rules establishing:
(1) requirements of a performance agreement between
participating districts and the coordinating entity;
(2) the period during which a partnership under the
program may operate after receiving commissioner approval and
before a renewal of commissioner authorization is required; and
(3) performance standards for a renewal of
commissioner authorization to participate in the program.
(l) This section does not prohibit an agreement between a
school district and another entity for the provision of services at
a district campus.
(m) The commissioner may accept gifts, grants, and
donations from any source, including private and nonprofit
organizations, for the program. A private or nonprofit
organization that contributes to the program may receive an award
under Section 7.113.
SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 48, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 48.118 to read as follows:
Sec. 48.118. RURAL PATHWAY EXCELLENCE PARTNERSHIP (R-PEP)
ALLOTMENT AND OUTCOMES BONUS. (a) For each full-time equivalent
student in average daily attendance in grades 9 through 12 in a
college or career pathway offered through a partnership under the
Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) program under Section
29.912, a school district is entitled to an allotment equal to the
basic allotment, or, if applicable, the sum of the basic allotment
and the allotment under Section 48.101 to which the district is
entitled, multiplied by:
(1) 1.15 if the student is educationally
disadvantaged; or
(2) 1.11 if the student is not educationally
disadvantaged.
(b) Each year, the commissioner shall determine for each
school district the minimum number of annual graduates of a college
or career pathway described by Subsection (a) in each cohort
described by Section 48.110(b) who would have to obtain not later
than five years after high school graduation a postsecondary
credential of value, as determined by the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board based on analyses of wages and costs associated
with the credential, including a degree, certificate, or other
credential from credit and noncredit programs that equip students
for continued learning and greater earnings in the state economy,
in order for the district to qualify for an outcomes bonus under
Subsection (c).
(c) In addition to the allotment under Subsection (a), for
each annual graduate in a cohort described by Subsection (b) who
obtains a postsecondary credential of value in excess of the
minimum number of students determined for the applicable district
cohort under Subsection (b), a school district is entitled to an
annual outcomes bonus of:
(1) if the annual graduate is educationally
disadvantaged, $1,500;
(2) if the annual graduate is not educationally
disadvantaged, $750; and
(3) if the annual graduate is enrolled in a special
education program under Subchapter A, Chapter 29, $1,500,
regardless of whether the annual graduate is educationally
disadvantaged.
(d) A school district is entitled to an outcomes bonus under
each subdivision in Subsection (c) for which an annual graduate
qualifies.
(e) A school district may receive funding for a student
under this section and any other section for which the student
qualifies. At least 80 percent of funds allocated under this
section must be spent as provided in the budget adopted by the board
of the coordinating entity.
(f) The total amount of state funding for allotments and
outcomes bonuses under this section may not exceed $5 million per
year. If the total amount of allotments and outcomes bonuses to
which school districts are entitled under this section exceeds the
amount permitted under this subsection, the agency shall allocate
state funding to districts under this section in the following
order:
(1) allotments under Subsection (a) for which school
districts participating in partnerships prioritized under Section
29.912(h) are eligible;
(2) allotments under Subsection (a) for which school
districts that entered into a memorandum of understanding or letter
of commitment regarding a multidistrict pathway partnership, as
defined by commissioner rule, before May 1, 2023, are eligible;
(3) allotments under Subsection (a) for which school
districts that have entered into a performance agreement under
Section 29.912 with a coordinating entity that is an institution of
higher education, as defined by Section 61.003, are eligible;
(4) allotments under Subsection (a) for which school
districts with the highest percentage of students who are
educationally disadvantaged, in descending order, are eligible;
and
(5) outcomes bonuses under Subsection (c) for which
school districts with the highest percentage of students who are
educationally disadvantaged, in descending order, are eligible.
SECTION 3. Section 29.912, Education Code, as added by this
Act, applies beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
SECTION 4. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
section, 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.
(b) Section 48.118, Education Code, as added by this Act,
takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2209 was passed by the House on April
28, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 108, Nays 38, 1 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 2209 on May 15, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 120, Nays 23,
1 present, not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2209 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 11, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 28, Nays
2.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor