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Senate Education met on August 10 to take up SB 15 (Taylor) relating to virtual and off-campus electronic instruction at a public school. At the end of the hearing, a committee substitute for SB 15 was adopted and it was voted out of committee (6-0).

 

The HillCo report below is a summary of information intended to give you an overview and highlight of the various topics included in the responses. This report does not cover the entirety of each response, but aims to provide an overview of the testimony submitted.

 

SB 15 (Taylor) Relating to virtual and off-campus electronic instruction at a public school, the satisfaction of teacher certification requirements through an internship teaching certain virtual courses, and the allotment for certain special-purpose school districts under the Foundation School Program

  • Chair Taylor – Is virtually similar to the CC report to HB 1468; died after the walkout in the House
  • Allows schools and open charters to provide a virtual learning option
  • Schools can pivot and provide virtual options during a public safety emergency
  • Limits participation to students sin the district and can physically reach the school if need be
  • Allows for asynchronous, synchronous and hybrid
  • Districts can design programs locally
  • Parents can determine if children need to return to in-person learning
  • Most students need to be face-to-face to thrive; small percentage thrive online
  • Fund to parallel in person, attendance will be taken once a day
  • Will take the same state test the same way as other students
  • Will be evaluated separately to those receiving in-person instruction
  • Bill does not permit schools to limit
  • Prohibits the requirement teachers teach remote and in person ion the same class period
  • Districts can enter into agreements/contracts with other districts
  • No more than 10% can be enrolled in the online program; Commissioner can waive this percentage given public health events
  • Continuation of full-time virtual programs that operated outside the VSN;
    • Including Roscoe ISD and two others
  • Added a provision for parents who want an in-person option
  • Commissioner may waive 10% enrollment cap
  • Have a committee substitute
  • CS made one change to remove enrollment cap for those outside the virtual school network
    • Allows them to keep the population they currently have
  • Lucio – Could a district refuse to offer virtual courses to special education students?
    • Could be some cases where they have needs beyond what could be offered virtually
    • Do not want schools putting special needs students virtually to just get them off their campus
  • West – Plan to be a cosponsor of this bill again; how are these programs funded? ADA?
    • Funded the same way as in-person students are
    • Have a commission supposed to be meeting in the interim
    • West – Are supposed to have a report by December 2022
  • West – Would it not be more prudent to extend this to 2023, not 2027 as the bill does?
    • Will be happy to look at that, would make sense to line it up to session
  • Perry – Last bill had student performance metrics, how does that look? Hearing districts are spending millions to get into a virtual environment
    • Bill would not allow someone to go fully virtual unless they have a waiver by the Commissioner
    • Are required to take the same test, will include metrics, school may determine a student may come back to in-person if student does not meet certain criteria
  • Perry – Notes that a district has 8,000 online; assume urban districts are going fully virtual; seems like we are having a full shift based on a temporary situation
    • Notes STAAR performance online was poor
    • Failing districts cannot participate in this, is C or higher
  • Schwertner – TEA data shows a majority do best face-to-face; concerned the enrollment cap is gone; concerned about underperforming students being able to participate
    • Enrollment cap is still there; online learning is not for every student
    • Cannot compare COVID response to a high-performing online virtual learning program
    • Was appalled by the percentage of those attending in-person
  • Schwertner – Concerned about the social/developmental aspects missing from online learning; any studies on this?
    • Can tell anecdotally students are socially doing fine; can still participate in extracurricular activities
    • Some students have particular needs where virtual environment works best for them
  • Schwertner – Would have to meet IDD laws; how to meet these?
    • School needs to provide reasonable access to in-person or having providers come to them
    • Parents will choose the best option for their child
  • Bettencourt – Would like to hear from Morath soon; COVID-19 led us in a direction we were already going; welcome a chance of public schools to offer online
  • Powell – Agree online schooling is not for everyone and in person instruction is the highest quality we can offer
  • Powell – Cannot force children back into the classroom during this public health crisis; stripping the ability of school districts to require masks is not a solution to end the pandemic
  • Paxton – SD 8 school districts and parents have been asking for this; supports prohibition for teachers to not teach in person and virtually at the same time
  • Paxton – Address the program requirements in the bill?
    • Aim to have state test for all students; included for accountability
  • Lucio – Hopes there is not a confrontation at the state and school levels in allowing them to have local control for what they feel is best for their students

 

Mike Morath, TEA Commissioner

  • We have not obtained internal clarity on what is in the best interest of school children concerning this topic
  • Remote learning last year was far from effective
  • Learning loss has increased due to online instruction last year; wiped out 10-20 years of educational gains
  • In person learning is best for a majority of kids; have been looking to explore other methods
  • Hybrid learning at the high school level could be “extraordinary” for a majority of students
  • Remote instruction at the elementary level is state-assisted home schooling; question is if there is value for the state being involved
    • Question is if that is the same cost model
  • Large demand has grown for learning pods assisted by school districts; is rarely offered
  • Recognizes any expansion of virtual learning means there will be more students learning virtually
  • Some district investments in virtual learning were fruitful, but that was not the norm
  • Demand near-term is mostly driven by fear of COVID-19
  • In-school transmission was low last year
  • Some schools mandated masks and some did not
  • Even in places where masks were not mandated, saw low transmission levels
  • Have more tools for safety including rapid testing; could lead to even lower levels
  • Innovative learning is needed, but there is complexity on the supply side on the effect it could have on children
  • Perry – Would be naive to underestimate environmental factors of this legislation; do you have a demographics breakdown on child performance?
    • Do not have well analyzed outcomes on an induvial basis
    • Team will analyze performance level in September
  • Perry – Large part of the challenge is having an engaged parent?
    • Anecdotally, have 5.5 million students with varying family structures
  • Perry – What is the percentage of those C and below?
    • Do not track that, track reading proficiency levels
    • Reading across all subjects before COVID-19 29% noticeably below grade level, 33% after
    • 21% math proficiency before COVID-19, 37% below after last year
  • Perry – Under this bill, 500,000 kids could potentially outside the classroom and below grade level
    • Is possible
  • Perry – Had conversations with teacher’s associations? Support virtual?
    • Do not want to speak for them; their positions have shifted in both directions
  • Perry – Notes that schools were closed to the detriment of students
  • Perry – Can homeschooling tie into public school systems? What metrics for homeschooling?
    • Depends what is offered; do not know, can get to you
    • Perry – Homeschoolers typically do well
  • Perry – Do not know if I support this legislation; dealbreaker would be going past 2023
  • Perry – Would be naive if the 10% cap was not asked to move up to 20%; reiterates that we cannot change systems based on short-term situations
  • Schwertner – Data does not show that virtual schooling is the correct environment for most students
  • Schwertner – Why are we doing this?
    • There are iterations that could be positive; issue is how to not foster harmful iterations
    • Students who performed poorly before could be identified
    • Funding supply and supporting families are different things
    • RGV pre-COVID had highest performance of mathematics; one child out of 3rd grade that spoke Spanish mastered mathematics in virtual school
  • Schwertner – Do not want this innovation, want the opposite
  • Bettencourt and Morath discuss the move to virtual as pressured by the pandemic
  • Bettencourt – Need to open up the market channel as it could have payoffs in the future; if we do not get the lions share of kids in the classroom, data will get worse
    • Not under this pressure, it is schools being pressured
    • Superintendent Hinojosa has a middle school hybrid idea that would require a waiver for minimum instruction time
    • Looking at these innovations
  • Bettencourt – Does the bill give the flexibilities to address the older the student the more impactful?
    • The bill allows for localities to offer whatever program they would like
  • West – Bill talks about hybrid programs that the funding source is the same and daily attendance would be the same, correct?
    • Yes
  • West – Supporting this bill, agree with setting the deadline to 2023
  • West – School districts should have the option to determine what is right for their students
  • West – Overwhelming majority of Texans want to see in person, but we need to look at what the innovations could propel us into the 21st century
  • Perry – Hopefully the delta variant spikes quickly and the fatality rate is lower; hopes scientific data pushes school districts to get back in person
  • Perry – Concerns there could be ineffective virtual options? District by district contract?
    • VSN currently has a moratorium, is a different statute
    • A mix of vendors out there; framework of the bill is entirely local choice
  • Perry – Have done some foolish things to undermine broadband capability; my rural communities will probably not participate in this
    • Still have significant broadband divide particularly in rural Texas
  • Perry – District has to offer?
    • Is entirely the district’s choice to offer
    • Taylor – Districts can choose to not offer and contract with another that is offering
  • Perry – If districts did not lose the ADA, would they offer?
    • Most districts are keen, and would move forward without full funding
    • Funding is a motivator
  • Paxton – RGV example? Remote learning only?
    • All the students, only 25% of that population were in-person
    • Paxton – So even those in-person did not succeed?
    • Is the issue with concurrent instruction, bill prohibits this
  • Paxton – Are good safeguards in the bill to support student performance?
    • Accountability system in the state focuses on campus-level accountability
    • Bill provides there are some who can diffuse their online students to hide accountability
    • This year, will not be Ds or Fs ratings
  • Paxton – Asks about contracting
    • School district needs to provide the flexibility to provide extracurriculars at their home campus
  • Lucio – Have you called DSHS’s leadership on how the variant could impact student safety?
    • Talk to Dr. Hellerstedt often; DSHS has a rulemaking role in public health statute
    • A positive test result of COVID-19 is subject to a mandatory exclusion for 10 days
    • Rule was issued three weeks ago
    • Are supporting vaccine clinics in schools
    • Public health guidance is drafted with DSHS
  • Lucio – Teachers have raised concerns that many parents not been vaccinated and do not want their children vaccinated
  • Lucio and Morath discuss the safety options in schools
  • Taylor – More students in the RGV were approaching standards, just one mastered?
    • Correct
  • Taylor – Virtual option is great for students who are disciplined, quarantined, hurricanes, or future health crisis
  • Taylor – RSV is going on across the country, and campuses are shut down regularly
  • Taylor – Agree that having the language changed to a separate campus would allow for transparency
    • Will talk to superintendents on that language
  • Morath overviews COVID-19 case information; broader safety protocols
  • Taylor – Asks Morath to overview COVID-19 school data
    • In one school with 15,000-16,000 population only 51 tested positive
    • Taylor – How many had symptoms?
    • Do not know, would have been apprised if they were severe
  • Bettencourt – Where was this school?
    • Not sure, in a place with high transmission
  • Paxton – Bill provides for intervention for students performing poorly?
    • Provides flexibility in terms of implementation
    • Paxton – Would expect teachers would have the same attention to student’s progress

 

Amy Litzinger, Texas Parent to Parent – On

  • IEP supports are needed and may not be an option in virtual
  • Some students must be in class but can only be safe if masking is mandated
  • Allow schools to enforce medically recommended masking protocols so all children can received access

 

Kurtis Indorf, Great Hearts Online – For

  • Public charter school network serving 8k students
  • Difference between emergency learning and virtual education
  • They build and design a school model for the virtual environment
  • Results from 5 months pilot, students exceeded national averages

 

Jonathan Hornack, Self – For

  • Children go to Great Hearts Online, best place for his children regardless of COVID
  • They offer a classical charter school education

 

Bob Popinski, Raise Your Hand Texas – For

  • Want an remote option to help districts this school year through Foundation School Program
  • Concerned with expiration date; teachers could go 7 years without stepping in the classroom concern
  • West – Notes that section is not mandatory

 

Jamie Wilson, Denton Superintendent – For

  • Provided copy of plan in alignment with HB 1468, so they can see what a true virtual academy looks like
  • When the bill did not pass they are working on Plan B
  • Have 1k students on the waiting list for enrollment in virtual academy
  • West – Asked about the number enrolled?
    • Had people wanting to participate before Delta variant
    • Just around 300 students met the timeline requirements but it is now growing each and every day
  • West – How many in virtual?
    • 300 currently committed and have enrollment of 31k students
    • It is probably approaching 1k today and thinks they can scale up quickly
  • West – Asked about Commissioner language?
    • Thinks it is a good start
    • Had approximately 11k students were still learning at home and question was how many would be ready in August, plan was to offer to 5% and worked backwards
  • West – Reason why students want to do this?
    • The early commitments were students who did well in the environment
    • Without having face coverings, more parents concerned on Delta applied as time went on
  • Points out cap language and request to review language to ensure consistency
  • Talks about mask wearing, teachers were the ones who had to enforce
  • School is place for kids to come, without virtual option districts are really in a bind

 

Bruce Gearing, Superintendent Leander ISD – For

  • Also for TASA and FGSC
  • Need to meet needs of students which includes voice and choice
  • Virtual Education important for long term need for those who don’t fit in comprehensive schools
  • Current Delta variant create crisis so online is an option
  • Agrees don’t need to remove caps
  • Enrollment for just over 300 in Virtual Academy now at around 3k due to Delta
  • Bettencourt – Asked about numbers again
    • Adds more detail, will use fund balance
  • West – Asked about local authority
    • Yes, agrees should have local authority to require mask if possible
  • West – Need maximum flexibility, would agree
    • Yes sir, thank you

 

Donald Odom, Self from Wheeler Avenue Baptist – For

  • Believes virtual learning can be improved upon and did see it get better over the year

 

Texas Computer Education Association – For

  • Provides an easy transition back to in-person learning within their local school district

 

Annette Tielle, Superintendent Del Valle ISD – For

  • Many parents are concerned about sending students to in-person school and are asking for virtual learning options
  • Opened a $3.6 million virtual learning program last week which 600 students were signed up
  • Some campuses did better remotely versus virtually; the Winter Storm impacted students
  • Educational system has not changed in 100 years and had to quickly pull something together
  • Now we have time to plan for a better program
  • Paxton – Did you mean virtually versus in-person?
    • Yes, varied by campus
    • Those who did poorly virtually, their houses were hurt by the Winter Storm
    • When have more appropriate time, can plan more appropriately
    • West – Please share that data with the committee

 

Anne Heuberger, Board of Trustee Member Del Valle ISD – For

  • Pandemic has had a devastating impact on the African American and Hispanic communities
  • Have had the highest positivity rates in Travis County
  • See that vaccinated people can test positive and transmit COVID-19
  • Children 12 and under are testing positive more for the variant
  • Districts must shoulder the burden of the cost
  • Will not be hiring vendors, staff will be teaching a virtual learning program
  • West – Foundation School Program will be funding the program
    • Just want to put that out there we would be willing to fund out of our fund balance

 

Holly Robertson, Self – For

  • Served as a virtual kindergarten teacher at Roscoe ISD
  • Provides anecdote of their virtual classroom; made academic gains by ELL and SPED students
  • Bettencourt – Notes Roscoe is in Perry’s district

 

Monte Exter, ATPE – Against

  • 5 out of 6 of the virtual providers are constantly failing
  • Represent a third of the teachers in the state
  • Some see the need for a short-term virtual program
  • Majority think a permanent expansion is not a viable solution
  • Same groups that said we need masks have been clear we need all levels back to in-person schooling
  • Need two different solutions, one immediate and one long-term

 

Stephen Alleman, Disability Rights Texas – On

  • Need to take a step back and evaluate if more proactive protocols were followed such as masks
  • Current mask prohibition is against federal law and impacts students with disabilities
  • Low infection rate data may not be relevant anymore due to the variant

 

Laura Atlas Krabits, Texas State Teachers Association – Against

  • Educators are concerned about going back into the classroom
  • Lack of guidance by TEA and health safety protocols like masks
  • No need for enacting legislation and online learning is not a long-term solution
  • State is ignoring two of the AP’s recommendations; going back to school and wearing masks

 

Patsy Quincy, American Federation of Teachers – Against

  • Face-to-face learning is the best way to deliver education
  • Understand the need for virtual learning during an emergency, but not as a long-term solution
  • Would like to see language that this cannot be waived, was amendment 9 by Hughes in the regular session
  • Masking is a reliable way to protect the safety of children

 

CSSB 15 voted out of committee (6-0) to the full Senate