The commission must create a performance-based funding process for annual awards to adult education and literacy service providers, set performance criteria and corrective-action procedures, and require commission-member approval for awards.
Sec. 315.007. PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE FUNDING. (a) The commission by rule shall develop and establish a performance-based process for annually awarding funds to entities that deliver adult education and literacy services under this chapter. The process must be designed to reward those entities demonstrating exemplary performance in the delivery of services. (b) In developing the process for awarding funds under this section, the commission shall prescribe: (1) criteria, including fiscal and programmatic performance criteria, to be used to evaluate the performance by the entities described by Subsection (a); and (2) procedures for taking corrective action, including contract termination or the discontinuation of an award of funds, against an entity for the entity's failure to satisfy the performance criteria prescribed under Subdivision (1). (c) The criteria prescribed under Subsection (b)(1) for the award of funds to entities described by Subsection (a) based on performance during a program year must include the achievement by an entity of the following enrollment target and performance benchmarks: (1) the enrollment in a high school equivalency program or a postsecondary ability to benefit program of at least 25 percent of all students receiving adult education and literacy services from the entity during that program year; and (2) the achievement by the end of that program year of a high school equivalency certificate or a postsecondary certificate by at least 70 percent of those students who exit the entity's adult education program during that program year and who are enrolled in a high school equivalency program or a postsecondary ability to benefit program. (d) The process developed under this section must require the members of the commission to approve the award of any funds under this chapter. (e) In this section, "postsecondary ability to benefit program" means a postsecondary certificate program in which a person who does not have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate and who both qualifies for federal student financial aid and demonstrates on an assessment instrument that the person can pass college-level courses with some support may enroll. Added by Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 73 (S.B. 307), Sec. 1.01, eff. September 1, 2013. Amended by: Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1091 (H.B. 1949), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2019.