HBA-MPM C.S.H.B. 1104 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1104 By: Dunnam Public Education 5/4/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE One of the stated objectives for public education found in Chapter 4, Education Code, is for parents to be full partners with educators in the education of their children. Although state law requires that each public school campus have a campus-level decision-making committee which should include parent members, these committees have shown mixed results in promoting parental involvement. C.S.H.B. 1104 provides for each district campus' improvement plan to include a program to encourage parental involvement at that campus and gives the commissioner of education the authority to order the preparation of a report regarding parental involvement at the campus, as well as a plan outlining strategies for improvement of this plan, if necessary. Furthermore, this bill requires the Texas Education Agency (agency) to evaluate each school district to determine if it is involving parents in planning and decision making; requires the commissioner of education to assign each district certain ratings, based on certain evaluation and criteria; and requires the agency to make these ratings available to the public. This bill also requires a district with unacceptable ratings to submit a plan of improvement to the agency within a certain time frame. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 11.253(d), Education Code, to provide that each campus improvement plan must provide for a program to encourage parental involvement at the campus. Makes conforming changes. SECTION 2. Amends Section 39.131(b), Education Code, to authorize the commissioner of education to order the preparation of a report regarding the parental involvement program at the campus and a plan describing strategies for improving parental involvement at the campus, if that campus performance is below any standard under Section 39.073(b) (Determining Accreditation Status), Education Code, and therefore considered a low-performing campus. Section 39.073(b) requires each annual review to include an analysis of certain indicators to determine district and campus performance in relation to standards established for each indicator, required improvement, and comparable improvement. SECTION 3. Makes this Act applicable beginning with the 1999-2000 school year. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1104 differs from the original bill by deleting SECTION 1 of the original, and adding SECTIONS 1-3. With respect to these new SECTIONS, please see the Section-by-Section Analysis in this document. Deleted SECTION 1 of the original amended Subchapter F, Chapter 11, Education Code, by adding Section 11.255, as follows: Sec. 11.255. STATE EVALUATION OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. (a) Requires the Texas Education Agency (agency), at least every two years, to evaluate each school district to determine if the district is involving parents in district and campus-level planning and decision making. (b) Requires the commissioner of education (commissioner) to assign each district a rating of excellent, acceptable, or unacceptable, based on the evaluation and criteria the commissioner establishes. Specifies that this criteria must reflect the objective stated in Section 4.001 (Public Education Mission and Objectives), Education Code, that parents be full partners in their children's education. (c) Requires the agency to make district ratings and evaluations available to the public and requires a district, no later than the 60th day after it receives its rating, to publish the rating and the evaluation summary in a newspaper of general circulation in the district at least once weekly for two consecutive weeks. (d) Requires a district that receives an unacceptable rating to submit a plan for improving parental involvement to the agency no later than the 60th day after it receives its rating. Requires the agency to monitor a district's compliance with the plan and the requirements relating to parental involvement. SECTION 4 (emergency clause) of the substitute is redesignated from SECTION 2 of the original.