HBA-MPM C.S.H.B. 1291 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1291 By: Garcia Public Education 4/20/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law requires the appropriate class size and student performance portions of campus report cards to be disseminated to parents, but does not require dissemination of information regarding the percentage of students who did not graduate from high school in four years. Providing such information to a parent may help the parent determine if there are attrition problems in the child's school. C.S.H.B. 1291 requires this information to be boldly and conspicuously printed in the campus report card distributed to each parent and provides that a high school campus or school district is prohibited from achieving an acceptable rating status if dropout rates exceed five percent. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the commissioner of education in SECTION 2 (Section 39.052, Education Code) and SECTION 4 of this bill. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1291 amends the Education Code to include additional information in the portions of a campus report card that is disseminated to the parent or person having lawful control of a student (parent) at a high school campus. The bill specifies that the report card include the number and percentages of students who did not complete the ninth through twelfth grades in four years displayed in conspicuous print and boldface type. The bill provides that the parent of a former campus student who has dropped out of school also be provided the information as soon as practicable after the student drops out. The bill requires the commissioner of education to adopt rules regarding these provisions no later than January 1, 2002. The bill provides that the rules are applicable to public school campus report cards beginning with the 20022003 school year. Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, the bill prohibits a high school campus or school district from being rated as acceptable or higher or academically acceptable or higher, respectively, unless the longitudinal dropout rate for each specified category of students is five percent or less in addition to the other criteria that must be met. The bill requires that dropout rates be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and status as a student of limited English proficiency. The bill specifies that a "dropout" is a student who withdraws from a public school in this state without earning a high school diploma and whose enrollment in another public or private high school in this country has not been verified and recorded by a school district in this state or by the Texas Education Agency. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1291 differs from the original by including provisions that prohibit a high school campus or school district from being rated as acceptable or higher or academically acceptable or higher, respectively, unless the longitudinal dropout rate is five percent or less. The substitute also specifies that dropout rates are required to be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and status as a student of limited English proficiency. The substitute adds a definition of "dropout."