HBA-CCH H.B. 1817 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1817 By: Dunnam Public Education 3/5/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE State law supports site-based decision-making processes as essential to improving schools. Current law requires a district to adopt policies and administrative procedures to implement site-based decision making, including establishment of district-level and campus-level planning and decision-making committees (committee). However, current law does not set forth specific provisions for the committee to be involved in developing the budget for a school district. The law does not provide a committee with recourse, if a superintendent, principal, or board of trustees (board) fails to follow the site-based decision making process. House Bill 1817 provides that a committee must be included in the budgeting process, and establishes a procedure to ensure that the site-based decision-making process is followed. 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 1817 amends the Education Code to require the board of trustees (board) of a school district to establish a procedure for district-level and campus-level planning and decision-making committees (committee) to formally present recommendations directly to the board in response to a decision by the superintendent or a campus principal that is contrary to a committee's recommendation. H.B. 1817 provides that the administrative procedure required under current law that defines the roles and responsibilities of different individuals in the areas of planning, budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development, and school organization must include a process by which the board and superintendent consider a committee's recommendations concerning a proposed budget. The bill also requires each principal to develop budgets for the principal's campus in accordance with the administrative procedure. The bill requires the board to ensure that all participants in the planning and decision-making process perform their roles and responsibilities in accordance with the administrative procedure. The bill specifies that the duties of the superintendent include preparing recommendations for policies to be adopted by the board of trustees in accordance with the district-level and campus-level planning and decision-making process. The bill requires the commissioner of education to authorize special accreditation investigations to be conducted in response to a written statement adopted by a majority of the members of a committee that cites specific evidence that the board of trustees has failed to properly implement the policies and procedures required for the district or site-based decision-making process. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.