HBA-JRA H.B. 3770 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3770 By: Gallego Public Education 4/20/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, school districts do not give intra-district transfer priority to those students who fail to perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument while attending a campus identified by the commissioner of education as low-performing. Districts that cannot accommodate the transfer of such students are not required to provide them with remedial services until a transfer can be completed. H.B. 3770 requires a school district to give priority to students who attend lowperforming schools and are seeking modified assignments or transfers because of failure to perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument in reading or mathematics. This bill also requires a district to provide remedial services to the student if the district is unable to provide a modified assignment or transfer. 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 Subchapter B, Chapter 25, Education Code, by adding Section 25.0341, as follows: Sec. 25.0341. ASSIGNMENTS AND TRANSFERS FOR CERTAIN STUDENTS. (a) Authorizes a student's parent or other person standing in parental relation to the student to request assignment or transfer of the student to a campus in the school district in which the student is entitled to attend school under Section 25.001 (Admission) other than the campus to which the student is regularly assigned if the student, during the preceding school year, failed to perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument in reading or mathematics and is assigned to attend a campus that was, at any time in the preceding three years, identified as low-performing by the commissioner of education on a basis other than the dropout rate. (b) Authorizes a parent of such a student or a person standing in parental relation to the student to submit a list to the school district of not more than five other campuses in the district, in order of preference, that the parent or other person would prefer the student to attend. Requires a school district to assign or transfer the student to the highest-ranked campus on the list at which space is available. (c) Requires a district to provide remedial services to the student if the district is unable to provide a modified assignment or transfer under this section to a student because of the limited number of facilities in the district or because of a lack of available space at any other appropriate campus. Requires the district to provide the student with transportation to the remedial services if the student is entitled to receive transportation to the campus at which the student regularly attends school. (d) Requires a school district to maintain a waiting list of students who have been denied modified assignments or transfers under this section because of a lack of available space and grant the modified assignments or transfers during the school year as space becomes available. (e) Requires a school district to give priority to students seeking modified assignments or transfers under this section over students seeking modified assignments or transfers under Section 25.033 (Assignment or Transfer on Petition of Parent). (f) Requires a school district to maintain records relating to each modified assignment or transfer requested under this section, and report the disposition of each request through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective to the 1999-2000 school year. SECTION 3.Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.