House: Adjourned until Tue, Mar 8, 2011 10:00 am

Senate: Adjourned until Tue, Mar 8, 2011 11:00 am

Key date in March:

Friday, March 11, 2011 (60th day) – Deadline for filing bills and joint resolutions other than local bills, emergency appropriations, and bills that have been declared an emergency by the governor.

May deadlines calendar for action under House and Senate rules can be found at: http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/scanned/calendars/2011calendar.pdf

Spotlight on bills filed

SB3 was filed by Sen. Florence Shapiro on March 7. The posting rule was suspended and the bill will be heard on today on March 8 at 8 a.m. in Senate Education. The bill is identical to SB 468 and relates to the flexibility of the board of trustees of a school district in the management and operation of public schools in the district. 

Rep. Rob Eissler filed HB 500 yesterday relating to end-of-course (EOC) examination requirements for Texas public school students. HB 500 would, among other things, authorize districts to adopt policies that determine whether, and if so, how, performance on EOCs will be used to determine students’ final course grades.  This applies to retakes of EOCs as well and begins with the 2011-12 school year.