House Bill (HB) 3 Implementation: College Preparation Assessment Reimbursements

This letter announces the application release for districts to request reimbursement for the ACT and SAT as authorized by House Bill (HB) 3, 86th Texas Legislature, 2019.  

Background

The College Preparation Assessment Reimbursement, authorized by Texas Education Code (TEC), §48.155 and §39.0261, provides funding to districts for the cost of the administration of college preparation assessments (SAT, ACT, and TSIA) once per student either in the spring of their junior year or in their senior year, beginning in the 2019‐2020 school year. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides each district estimated funding annually for assessment reimbursement, which can be found in the Summary of School Finance Report (line 40). TEA will settle up with districts in the spring of the following fiscal year once all student assessment data is processed.

For the 2020-2021 school year, ACT and the College Board both invoiced a price of $35 per eligible student for school day administrations. National day administrations were billed at a national day rate determined by each vendor.

Methodology

TEA receives testing data directly from ACT and the College Board (SAT). In order to verify that each student is a unique Texas student enrolled in a Texas district or open-enrollment charter school, TEA matched each eligible student to a record in the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) and separated the data into four categories:

• School Day – Matched: Every eligible student who participated in an ACT and/or SAT School Day administration in Texas and who was matched to a student record in PEIMS
• National Day – Matched: Every eligible student who participated in an ACT and/or SAT National Day administration in Texas and who was matched to a student record in PEIMS 
• School Day/National Day – Unmatched: Any eligible student who participated in an ACT and/or SAT National Day and/or School Day administration and who was not matched to a student record in PEIMS. TEA will only reimburse unmatched students who have a TSDS Unique Student ID. The district must add this ID in the application for students for whom they want a reimbursement.
• Not Represented: Any student for whom the district paid for an assessment and is not found in any of the above categories. The district will have the opportunity to submit the student’s information for a reimbursement request.

Please note that students who received a reimbursement in the 2019-2020 school year are not eligible to receive a reimbursement in the 2020-2021 school year.

Action from Districts

TEA announces the release of the ACT/SAT testing data to districts in TEA Login (TEAL) for districts to review, verify and submit for reimbursement. The person responsible for this project must have Accountability access in TEAL. Only the Superintendent can grant this level of access in TEAL.

In the TEAL application, districts will need to review the following four categories: 

• School Day – Matched: This link provides access to an application where districts may review and select students for whom the district paid and who tested during a school day administration. These students are automatically considered for reimbursement; therefore, districts have the opportunity to remove students for whom they do not want reimbursement.
• National Day – Matched: This link provides access to an application where districts may review and select students for whom the district paid and who tested during a national day (weekend) administration. These students are not automatically considered for reimbursement; therefore, no action is needed if districts do not want reimbursement for listed students.
• School Day/National Day – Unmatched: This link provides access to an application where districts may select the students for whom the district paid and who tested during a national or school day administration. Because these students were not matched to a student in PEIMS, districts must add the TSDS Unique Student ID. No action is needed if districts do not want reimbursement for listed students. 
• Not Represented: Any student for whom the district paid for an assessment and is not found in any of the above categories. The district will have the opportunity to submit the student for a reimbursement request through a Qualtrics survey while the TEAL application is open.

Dates and Deadlines

The application in TEAL opened on November 1, 2021, and closes December 17, 2021. 

Once the application closes, TEA will review the submission requests, combine them with Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) submission requests, and finalize reimbursement amounts. TEA will reimburse the highest cost exam.

Once settle-up occurs in April 2022, districts will be able to access through TEAL their reimbursement data, along with codes to elaborate on reimbursement decisions.

For Further Information

TEA has released training on how to navigate the TEAL platform. Additionally, FAQs regarding the college preparation assessment reimbursement and other support and guidance are available on the TEA College Preparation Assessment website. 

If you have additional questions regarding this correspondence, please contact Tracy Johnson at advancedacademics@tea.texas.gov or 512-463-9762.