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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR HEC

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/30/06

HB 62/HECS

SHORT TITLE Truancy Prevention Programs

SB

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$1,500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to appropriations contained in House Bill 3.

Duplicates an appropriation contained in the General Appropriations Act.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Education Committee substitute for House Bill 62 appropriates $1.270 million from the

general fund to the Public Education Department to support truancy and dropout prevention ini-

tiatives for public schools in partnership with other community-based state and local government

agencies.

The committee substitute also appropriates $230 thousand to the second judicial district court for

truancy court.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $1.5 million contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

House Bill 62/HECS – Page 2

The appropriations contained in the committee substitute are similar to appropriations included

in the general appropriations act to the public education department including language regarding

the $230 thousand appropriation to the second judicial district court.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Provisions contained in the bill focus on truancy and dropout prevention efforts using commu-

nity and governmental partners.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The department notes early truancy intervention strategies will improve attendance, consequently

positively impacting public school performance measures and benchmarks regarding reading,

language arts and math and graduation rates.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The PED would be responsible for administrating the flow of funds to community and govern-

mental partners. This would be accomplished through a competitive RFA. PED has an expan-

sion request which has been recommended in HB-3 for a truancy coordinator who would be re-

sponsible for these activities.

PA/nt