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AAPTA Legislation Corner
Welcome
to Austin Academy’s PTA Legislation Corner for the 2013-2014 school year. Another summer break is behind us and
everyone is geared up for back to school. As your AAPTA Legislative Chairman,
one of my primary responsibilities is to uphold the 3rd objective of PTA: "To secure adequate laws for the care and protection
of children and youth". In support of this objective, I will use our website to post local, state and national legislation
information affecting the education, health, or welfare of our children and youth. I hope that you find this site informative
and beneficial. I urge every parent and community member to get involved in legislation affairs that affect our children
and community. Our children alone are reason enough to drive us towards being strong advocates for their education and
well-being. Please take the time to visit this site and related links and stay informed on issues impacting our children.
I encourage each parent to contact your local, state and federal legislative representatives to let them know that education
should be a top priority.
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TEXAS PTA'S END OF 83rd TEXAS LEGISLATIVE
SESSION REPORT
More than 100 education-related bills
were
passed during the regular session of the 83rd Texas Legislature that ended May
27th. The Governor vetoed five of them.
Many of Texas PTA’s legislative
priorities were achieved, partially or in full, this session, thanks in large
part to the advocacy efforts of parents around the state. Your calls, emails
and visits made the difference.
It was clear to legislators that many
of their
constituents wanted funding restored for public schools, changes to state
mandated assessment of children, changes to graduation requirements so that
students have more options for post-high school, NO vouchers, support for
policies that maintain or increase students’ opportunities to be active during
the school day and that improve access to healthy and nutritious foods, and
policies that make schools safer.
To download the PDF of the report, go
to
Texas PTA website’s Legislative page
and click End of Session Report.
In the report, you will find information
about
specific bills of interest to Texas PTA, divided by category. We haven’t
included every bill that Texas PTA monitored, but many of the ones of greatest
interest to many PTA members. For more information about a certain bill, or to
find a bill that is not summarized in this PDF, visit the Texas PTA website’s Legislative page. Scroll
down to the table with links by category to the final bill reports.
NOTE: When legislation
references an ISD, public school campus or school board, you can assume that
the law is applicable to charter schools and their governing bodies as well.
Shout out to Austin area PTA members
who
advocated for Texas PTA’s priorities this session!
Kellyn Bradford: Legislative
Representative for Round Rock ISD
Council of PTAs, Vice President and Legislative Representative for Canyon Vista
Middle School
Lisa Cauble: RRISD
Council of PTAs president
Monica Sanchez: Casey
Elementary PTA president, and Austin
ISD Council of PTAs president
Arati Singh: Board
member Oak Hill Elementary PTA in Austin ISD
Sara Solomon: Historian
and membership chair for Canyon
Vista Middle School in Round Rock ISD
Casey Wenmohs: Legislative Chair Austin
Council of PTAs and Oak Hill Elementary PTA member
TEA WORKS WITH STATE AUDITOR'S OFFICE
TO
MONITOR CONTRACT FOR STUDENT ASSESMENTS
The State Auditor’s Office (SAO)
has just
completed a review of TEA’s processes and procedures regarding its contract
with NCS Pearson, Inc. The current Pearson contract provides services related
to student assessments for Texas public education students for the five-year
period from September 1, 2010, through August 31, 2015.
The original contract amount totaled
$468.4
million. The contract has since been reduced by about $6 million. This contract
represents 61 percent of the total dollar amount of all TEA contracts.
In 2011-2012, more than 11.5 million
tests
were administered to Texas public education students in grades 3 through 12,
including the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), the
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), the Texas English Language
Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), and variants of those tests.
Recommendations have been made to TEA
by the
State Auditor’s Office, including seeking more detail in monthly invoices;
establishing a more formal process for determining reductions in the contract
related to the vendor’s failure to meet specific requirements; and longer
physical retention of documents related to key deliverables of the contract.
The SAO also noted that TEA does not comply with regulations related to
disclosing whether vendor employees formerly worked for the Agency.
The SAO review did not identify any
examples
where Pearson was not meeting the terms of the contract with the state nor did
it identify any examples where TEA was not receiving the services outlined in
the contract.
To view the PDF of the complete report,
go
to Texas PTA website’s Legislative page
and click on State Auditor's Report
The complete report and
all
recommendations from the State Auditor’s Office, can be found here: http://e2.ma/click/u1xog/2b78ch/mvbddb.
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