AUSTIN – The Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced today that six school districts have submitted requests for Senate Bill 1882 (SB 1882) benefits for locally developed Turnaround Partnerships.

SB 1882 relates to a school district contract to partner with an open-enrollment charter school in good standing or other eligible entity (including institutions of higher education, non-profits or government entities) to operate a district campus.

School districts submitting an SB 1882 eligibility approval request to TEA include: Austin ISD; Ector County ISD; Hearne ISD; San Antonio ISD; Victoria ISD; and Waco ISD.

Turnaround Partnerships are specific to a district contracting with a partner to operate a campus that is in Improvement Required (IR) status in the State Academic Accountability System. SB 1882 incentives include a potential increase in state funding for the partnered campus, as well as an exemption for that campus from certain accountability interventions for two years.

Under SB 1882, the Commissioner of Education must review each partnership and determine if it meets the requirement to gain access to SB 1882 financial and accountability incentives. TEA expects notification to each district of the Commissioner’s decision to occur the week of May 21.

In addition to Turnaround Partnerships, SB 1882 also allows for Innovation Partnerships and New School Partnerships. Innovation Partnerships allow districts to contract with a partner to operate a campus that is in Met Standard status in the State Academic Accountability System. New School Partnerships allow districts to contract with a partner to launch a new school.

TEA expects additional SB 1882 eligibility approval requests from districts for Innovation Partnerships and New School Partnerships to be submitted later in the year. The deadline for districts to submit documents for these specific SB 1882 partnerships is July 2.

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