‘Second-chance’ bill passes Senate, goes back to House

‘Lives shouldn’t be ruined by one bad decision.’

The Texas House on Monday tentatively approved a Senate bill that would extend for four years a policy allowing students to graduate high school even if they fail up to two state standardized tests.

A high school senior who has failed up to two end-of- course State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness but has passed all classes and fulfilled other requirements can graduate as long as a committee made up of the student’s teacher, principal and parents gives unanimous consent.

Students otherwise must pass f ive end-of-cou r se STAAR exams to graduate.

“The kids who are being penalized are the kids with the learning disabilities,” said Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, who presented the bill on Monday. “I want him to work as hard as he can, but we’re going to spend 13 years of a kid’s life and he gets to the end of his career and he passed all his classes and say, ‘Eh ... because you didn’t pass your writing sample ... we’re not going to let you graduate’?”

Senate Bill 463 as it was originally filed would have made the policy permanent, but the original author of the bill, Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, had to pull back on the bill to extend the pol- icy until 2019 at the urging of fellow senators. Huberty on Monday restored some of the original intent of the bill by extending the policy until 2021. The House likely will give final approval of the bill on Tuesday, and it will then return to the Senate for approval on the changes Huberty has made.

Business leaders have opposed SB 463 because they say the committees have created an easy way for school districts and students to avoid the consequences of doing subpar work and some graduating students possibly are unprepared for life after high school.

Proponents of the committees see them as an opportunity for students who are learning English as a second language or have learning disabilities or testing anxiety to still graduate.

According to the Texas Education Agency, 9,000 students graduated through the graduation committees in the 2015-16 school year, comprising about 3 percent of all graduates. About 4,000 stu- dents were rejected to grad- uate after going through the committees.

In the 2014-15 school year — the first year the policy was in place — 6,300 students graduated through the committees.

The Texas Senate on Monday approved “sec- ond-chance” legislation that would let those convicted of one-time, nonviolent misdemeanors to ask a court to seal their criminal record from public view — no matter when it happened.

House Bill 3016 applies to class C misdemeanors and driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level below 0.15, but not for crimes the judge determines to be sexual or violent in nature.

The bill, which returns to the House to consider Senate changes, expands on similar legislation that became law in 2015 and applied to nonsexual class A and B misde- meanors that do not involve family violence.

The new bill also applies retroactively, allowing Texans to seek a court order of nondisclosure for some misdemeanors.

The idea, said Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, was to help people recover from mistakes that could make it difficult to get a job or housing and become productive members of society.

“Their lives shouldn’t be ruined by one bad decision,” Hughes said.

The convictions would not be hidden from police and those involved in banking, education or other sensitive industries.

For those with a DWI conviction, HB 3016 would allow a court order of nondisclosure only after six months of successful use of an ignition interlock device or five years after completing the sentence.