Bill > SB301

This bill modifies the requirements for juvenile justice alternative education programs (JJAEP) in Texas by changing the instructional time mandate from "seven hours per day and 180 days" to "at least 43,200 minutes of instructional time" per year. The bill allows these programs to apply to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department for a waiver of the instructional time requirement, with a caveat that the waiver cannot exceed the highest number of instructional minutes waived for any school district served by the program. This change provides more flexibility in how instructional time is calculated and potentially implemented, moving from a daily and annual day-count model to a total minutes-based approach. The bill will apply starting with the 2025-2026 school year and will take effect immediately if it receives a two-thirds vote in the Texas legislature, or otherwise on September 1, 2025. The modification aims to potentially provide more adaptable educational programming for students in juvenile justice alternative education settings while maintaining a substantive amount of instructional time.

Education

https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB301