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January 20, 2000
TO THE SUPERINTENDENT ADDRESSED:
SUBJECT: New TEXAS Grant Program
The Texas Legislature recently approved HB 713, establishing the "Toward EXcellence, Access, & Success (TEXAS)" Grant Program. This program establishes grants to cover tuition and fees to Texas public universities, community colleges and technical schools for students who have successfully completed the recommended or higher high school graduation programs and have financial need. If an eligible student attends an independent college or university in Texas, his or her award is based on public university tuition and fee charges (approximately $1,200 per semester for university students; $470 per semester for community college students; $700 per semester for technical college students, based on enrollment of 12 semester hours per semester). If a student's high school did not offer the recommended or higher high school graduation programs, the student must have taken the courses leading to these advanced programs that the high school offered. Students who graduated in December 1998 or later are eligible to apply for an award through the TEXAS Grant.
Financial aid officers at Texas institutions of higher education will identify eligible students by reviewing the high school transcripts sent to them. For a student to qualify, his or her transcript must clearly state that the student graduated in 1998-99 or later having completed the recommended or higher high school graduation program. Additionally, beginning in 1999-2000, transcripts must indicate, by the end of a student's junior year, whether the student is completing courses leading to at least the recommended high school program. Clarification regarding this issue will be forthcoming. The "financial need" will be determined by the completed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
This legislation requires the district improvement plan must include provisions for strategies for providing to middle school, junior high school, and high school students, those students' teachers and counselors, and those students' parents information about:
a) Higher education admissions and financial aid opportunities;
b) The Texas grant program;
c) The need for students to make informed curriculum choices to be prepared for success beyond high school; and
d) Sources of information on higher education admissions and financial aid.
The Texas Education Agency encourages you to provide this financial aid information to students and their parents as it may very well positively change the future for many Texas
students. Additional information
on the TEXAS Grant may be found on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board website, http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/divisions/student/TEXAS.htm.
For further information concerning the TEXAS Grant program, contact Jane Caldwell at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, (800) 242-3062 ext. 6455 or (512) 427-6455 or Evelyn Hiatt, Advanced Academics Division at the Texas Education Agency, (512) 463-9455.
Sincerely,
Jim Nelson
Commissioner of Education
Attachment: letter to counselor
For further information on this topic, contact Evelyn Hiatt, Advanced Academics Division at the Texas Education Agency, (512) 463-9455.