HBA-CCH H.B. 448 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 448 By: Oliveira Public Education 4/9/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Magnet schools are public schools, owned and operated by school districts, with a specially designed curriculum for students whose needs are not met by a traditional district school magnet schools have the potential to pool students from outside the school's regular service area. Current law mandates funding allotments for the transportation of a student who resides two or more miles from a student's campus of regular attendance, measured along the shortest route that may be traveled on public roads. Therefore, students who regularly attend a magnet school more than two miles from their home, but live less than two miles from their regularly assigned campus are ineligible for the transportation allotment and the school districts are forced to absorb the cost of transportation for that student. House Bill 448 reimburses school districts, through the transportation allotment of the Foundation School Program, the cost of transporting a student from a campus to a magnet school inside or outside the district. 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. ANALYSIS House Bill 448 amends the Education Code to reimburse school districts, through the transportation allotment of the Foundation School Program, the cost of transporting a student from a campus to a magnet school inside or outside the district. The bill requires the reimbursement to be determined by the actual miles traveled multiplied by the district's official extracurricular travel per mile rate set by the board of trustees and approved by the Texas Education Agency. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.