HBA-MPA C.S.H.B. 3142 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3142 By: Naishtat Economic Development 4/20/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, some courses offered by businesses that prepare students for college entrance exams are exempt from regulation while other courses similar in nature are not. Courses for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the State Bar, and the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) are exempt, while courses that prepare examinees for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) are not exempt. With the continuing development of technology, the code as currently written does not encourage consumers to learn how to utilize and benefit from new hardware and software products. C.S.H.B. 3142 ensures consistency in the exemption for preparatory courses for college entrance exams and exempts from regulation companies that manufacture or develop hardware or software and then trains consumers about how to use their products, and provides one-to-one instruction. 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 132.002(a), Education Code, by amending Subdivision (9) and adding Subdivisions (15) and (16), as follows: Sec. 132.002. EXEMPTIONS. (a) Provides that the following are specifically exempt from this chapter and are not included in the definition of "proprietary school": (9) a school that offers intensive review of a student's previously acquired education, training, or experience to prepare the student for an examination other than the high school equivalency examination that the student by law may not take unless the student has completed or substantially completed, or is required to take as a precondition of enrollment or a condition of admission in a particular degree program, rather than courses designed to prepare students for certain specified professional courses. (15) a course of instruction in the use of technological hardware and software offered to a purchaser or the purchaser's employee by a person who manufactures or develops and sells the hardware or software and is not primarily in the business of providing courses of instruction in the use of the hardware and software, as determined by the Texas Workforce Commission. (16) a course of instruction provided exclusively on a one-to-one basis. SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3142 differs from the original bill in SECTION 1 (Section 132.002(a), Education Code) by adding to Subdivision (9) the condition that a high school equivalency examination is not included among the examinations for which an intensive review course is excluded from the definition of proprietary school. The substitute adds to proposed Subdivision (15) reference to technological hardware and software, to developing such hardware and software, and to the Texas Workforce Commission determining if an entity is primarily in the business of providing courses of instruction in hardware and software. The substitute adds a new Subsection (16), to provide that a school offering a course of instruction provided exclusively on a one-to-one basis is not a proprietary school.