HBA-JEK H.B. 1407 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1407 By: McCall Public Education 4/12/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law does not provide home-schooled students access to public school facilities. As a matter of practice, a school's principal decides whether to permit home-schooled students to utilize the school's facilities. Yet, if school principals offer services to home-schooled students, they are not allowed to count these students in their school's average daily attendance (ADA). House Bill 1407 authorizes a homeschooled student to attend public school as a part-time student for the purpose of using certain services and participating in extracurricular activities, and includes these students in the district's ADA. 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 1407 amends the Education Code to authorize the enrollment of a home-schooled child as a part-time student in public school if the child is entitled to attend public school in the school district and the district and the child's parent or guardian agrees in writing to the child's enrollment. The bill authorizes a home-schooled student to participate in an academic class on the same basis as a regularly enrolled student. The bill authorizes a school district to furnish textbooks without cost to a home-schooled student who is entitled to attend public school in the district. H.B. 1407 authorizes a school district to establish a laboratory or other facility for home-schooled students that is not located on a regular school campus or to permit a home-schooled student to attend a district school to use a laboratory or other facility located on a regular school campus. The bill also authorizes a school district to offer an online course to home-schooled students for academic credit. The bill authorizes a district to permit a regularly enrolled student to use a laboratory or participate in an online course for home-schooled students. H.B. 1407 entitles a home-schooled student to participate in an extracurricular activity sponsored by the University Interscholastic League (UIL) on behalf of the school district if the board of trustees of that district adopts a policy authorizing such participation. The bill authorizes a district to permit a home-schooled student to participate in a district-sponsored extracurricular activity. The bill exempts a home-schooled student participating in an extracurricular activity sponsored by a school district or UIL from the provisions relating to the suspension of a student from extracurricular activities for receiving an unsatisfactory grade. This exemption does not apply to a student who withdrew from regular enrollment in the district and became a home-schooled student during such a suspension or during the last week of a grade evaluation period. Other than this exemption, a home-schooled student is not exempt from satisfying, as provided by league rule, each eligibility requirement for participating in a league-sponsored activity other than class attendance requirements. H.B. 1407 includes certain home-schooled students in the average daily attendance of a school district, and entitles a school district to include a home-schooled student as a full-time student in the district's daily attendance for each day of the minimum school year that a home-schooled student participates in a course or an extracurricular activity or receives services or textbooks. The bill prohibits a school district from administering an assessment instrument to a home-schooled student who is included in the district's average daily attendance. The bill prohibits a school district from charging a home-schooled student tuition, but requires the district to charge the student all applicable fees charged to a regularly enrolled student. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001. The provisions regarding the inclusion of home-schooled students in the average daily attendance take effect September 1, 2001. The Act applies beginning with the 2001-2002 school year.