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Communications Proficiency Rule Also Tweaked
Proposed Graduation Rule to Require
Submission of Financial Aid Applications
SBOE members on first (of two) reading tentatively approved (for public comment) a HB3 rule to require students to complete and submit a financial aid application as a graduation requirement starting next school year.
  • Note: The board, in the same set of graduation rules approved on first reading (as posted in the agenda), also added this amendment allowing districts the option to give students the opportunity to meet the graduation requirement to show proficiency in communications related skills in eighth grade instead of having to wait until high school to do so.
The proposed rule:
  • Requires students to submit and complete either the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or a Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA) as a requirement for high school graduation.

  • Allows parents (and students over 18) to opt out by submitting a completed TEA-designated opt-out form.

  • Allows a school counselor to exempt a student from the requirement for “good cause” — with “good cause” not defined. The counselor would not have to inform the district of the reason(s) for exempting the student.

TEA staff said nonprofit organizations are offering to help families, especially those with no prior college going history, to complete the financial aid applications.

SBOE Chair Keven Ellis, R-Lufkin, said the impetus for the HB3 requirement came from info received by the Texas Commission on Public School Finance that Texas students were leaving $300 million in financial aid unused annually due to only 60 percent of the state’s students submitting financial aid applications, compared to 90 to 100 percent of students in other states.

Ellis noted that the cost to attend a Texas community college (about $4,100) is less than a typical Pell Grant.

Following a period of public comment, the rule returns to the SBOE for final adoption in January.

The education commissioner, in a future rule making action, must adopt other rules that are needed to fully implement the rule, such as specifying the method by which districts are to report to TEA the number of students who did — and did not — complete the applications in order to graduate.