SB1400

Regular Session

Relating to a study on measurable outcomes for certain transfer students for performance tier funding under the public junior college state finance program.

Q: What does Texas SB1400 do?

SB1400 mandates the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to conduct a feasibility study on extending performance tier funding to Public Junior Colleges for students previously enrolled at general academic teaching institutions. This legislation effectively establishes the data framework for a projected $32 million annual funding expansion, requiring institutions to immediately adjust data tracking to capture this specific "reverse transfer" cohort to ensure future eligibility. Implementation Timeline Effective Date: September 1, 2025 Compliance Deadline: Internal data segmentation must begin Q4 2025 to ensure your institution's data is included in the feasibility modeling.

Q: Who authored SB1400?

SB1400 was authored by Texas Senator Lois Kolkhorst during the Regular Session.

Q: When was SB1400 signed into law?

SB1400 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025.

Q: Which agencies enforce SB1400?

SB1400 is enforced by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).

Q: How urgent is compliance with SB1400?

The compliance urgency for SB1400 is rated as "low". Businesses and organizations should review the requirements and timeline to ensure timely compliance.

Q: What is the cost impact of SB1400?

The cost impact of SB1400 is estimated as "low". This may vary based on industry and implementation requirements.

Q: What topics does SB1400 address?

SB1400 addresses topics including education, education--higher, education--higher--admission & attendance, education--higher--finance and education--higher--institutions & programs.

LowStandard timeline

Low Cost

Effective:2025-09-01

Enforcing Agencies

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)

Compliance Analysis

Key implementation requirements and action items for compliance with this legislation

Implementation Timeline

Effective Date: September 1, 2025
Compliance Deadline: Internal data segmentation must begin Q4 2025 to ensure your institution's data is included in the feasibility modeling.
Agency Rulemaking: The THECB must consult with the standing advisory committee and define study parameters in late 2025. The final report is due to the Legislature by December 1, 2026.

Immediate Action Plan

Configure SIS: Immediately update student record systems to tag students transferring *from* General Academic Teaching Institutions with <30 hours.
Retroactive Audit: Analyze 2020–2024 transfer data to model your institution's potential revenue share based on the LBB's $3,500/student estimate.
Track Utilization: Implement specific tracking codes for advising and support services used by this cohort to substantiate the "cost of services" data required by the study.
Engage THECB: Petition for representation on the Section 130A.1012(b) standing advisory committee to ensure the metrics defined favor your institution's operational reality.

Operational Changes Required

Contracts

SIS Vendor Agreements: Review contracts with Student Information System providers. You must ensure your system can isolate and report on "origin of transfer" fields specifically for university-to-junior-college transfers.
Data Sharing Agreements: Public Junior Colleges and General Academic Teaching Institutions must review inter-institutional agreements to ensure transcript data regarding "prior credit hours attempted" can be shared for state reporting without violating FERPA.

Hiring/Training

Registrar Training: Admissions staff must be trained to flag incoming transfer students who have less than 30 credit hours from a university, as the Fiscal Note identifies this specific group as the funding target.
Advising Staff: Advisors must be trained to track service utilization (tutoring, counseling) specifically for this cohort to justify the "cost of services" component of the study.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

Cohort Segmentation: You must create a new reporting tag for students who were *previously enrolled* at a general academic teaching institution.
Outcome Tracking: The law requires you to correlate this specific cohort with "measurable outcomes" (academic success or workforce placement). You must maintain distinct records for these students separate from the general transfer population.

Fees & Costs

Administrative Costs: Expect internal costs related to software configuration and manual transcript auditing to identify historical data for the study.
Revenue Opportunity: The LBB Fiscal Note estimates a potential funding rate of $3,500 per weighted transfer outcome starting in the 2026-2027 biennium if the study leads to formula changes.

Strategic Ambiguities & Considerations

Recency of Enrollment: The statute does not define a "look-back" period. It is unclear if a student who attended a university 10 years ago qualifies as "previously enrolled," or if this applies only to recent dropouts.
Definition of "Success": The bill lists "academic or workforce success." Agency rulemaking will determine if your institution gets paid only if the student transfers *back* to a university, or if placing them into a high-demand job also triggers funding.
Cost Calculation: The THECB has discretion to determine how "cost of services" is calculated. It is undefined whether this will be a flat state rate or a reimbursement of actual institutional expenditures.

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Legislative Timeline

This bill's path through the Texas Legislature

TopicsEducation Education--higher Education--higher--admission & Attendance Education--higher--finance Education--higher--institutions & Programs Education--junior College Districts Transfer Students Interim Studies Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas

Official Analysis

View HRO Analysis View All Bill Documents

BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1400
89R11772 KJE-D	By: Kolkhorst
	Education K-16
	3/26/2025
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

In the modern landscape of higher education, it is not uncommon for a student to begin at a general academic institution (GAI) before taking classes at a public junior college. However, there has been uncertainty as to whether a student who meets this criteria can qualify under the transferable outcome under performance tier funding.

Following the passage of H.B. 8 in the 88th Regular Session, performance tier funding rewards junior colleges across the state for a student who enrolls in a GAI after earning 15 semester credit hours from a single public junior college district. Since then, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's rule 13.556� established that the student "must be enrolled at the GAI for the first time in the fiscal year for which public junior college eligible for a performance tier allocation." Despite the fiscal year qualification, this rule has created confusion for public junior colleges as to when a student is eligible to be counted as a transfer.

S.B. 1400 seeks to address this issue by clarifying that a student may have up to 30 semester credit hours from a GAI and still count towards the transfer outcome when transferring from a public junior college to a GAI.

As proposed, S.B. 1400 amends current law relating to measurable outcomes for certain transfer students for performance tier funding under the public junior college state finance program.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 130A.003, Education Code, by adding Subdivision (2-a) to define "general academic teaching institution."

SECTION 2. Amends Section 130A.101, Education Code, by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (d), as follows:

(d) Requires a student transferring from a public junior college to a general academic teaching institution, for purposes of Subsection (c)(2) (relating to the number of students who earn at least 15 semester credit hours or the equivalent at the junior college district), to be considered a transfer student regardless of whether the student previously completed coursework at a general academic teaching institution if the student previously completed less than 30 semester credit hours or the equivalent at a general academic teaching institution at the time of transfer.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2025.

Senate Authors

Sen. Lois KolkhorstRepublican · Primary Author

House Sponsor

Rep. Stan KitzmanRepublican · Primary Sponsor

Bill Text(with markup)

S.B. No. 1400

View bill text in multiple formats on Texas Legislature website

Fiscal NoteView Original

	AN ACT
	relating to a study on measurable outcomes for certain transfer
	students for performance tier funding under the public junior
	college state finance program.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 130A, Education Code, is
	amended by adding Section 130A.1012 to read as follows:
	Sec. 130A.1012. STUDY ON STUDENT TRANSFERS. (a) In this
	section, "general academic teaching institution" has the meaning
	assigned by Section 61.003.
	(b) The coordinating board, in consultation with the
	standing advisory committee established under Section 130.001,
	shall conduct a study to assess the feasibility and the fiscal and
	policy implications, including the fiscal impact to the state, of
	revising the requirements for subsequent transfer to a general
	academic teaching institution for purposes of performance tier
	funding under Section 130A.101(c)(2)(A) to include students who
	were previously enrolled at a general academic teaching
	institution.
	(c) In conducting the study, the coordinating board shall
	assess:
	(1) the types of postsecondary educational experience
	and attainment that students have before enrolling in a public
	junior college, including:
	(A) the frequency of each type;
	(B) the kinds of services and how much of those
	services students with each type require from the college; and
	(C) the associated measures of academic or
	workforce success;
	(2) the fiscal impact of revising the requirements for
	subsequent transfer to a general academic teaching institution for
	purposes of performance tier funding under Section
	130A.101(c)(2)(A) to include students who were previously enrolled
	at a general academic teaching institution; and
	(3) any other factors or issues the coordinating board
	or the standing advisory committee established under Section
	130.001 determines relevant.
	(d) Not later than December 1, 2026, the coordinating board,
	in consultation with the standing advisory committee established
	under Section 130.001, shall submit to the legislature a report on
	the results of the study and any recommendations for legislative or
	other action.
	(e) This section expires September 1, 2027.
	SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
	Act takes effect September 1, 2025.

LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 89TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION


March 27, 2025

TO:	Honorable Brandon Creighton, Chair, Senate Committee on Education K-16

FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board

IN RE:	SB1400 by Kolkhorst (Relating to measurable outcomes for certain transfer students for performance tier funding under the public junior college state finance program.), As Introduced

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB1400, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($65,249,197) through the biennium ending August 31, 2027.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2026	($32,823,191)
2027	($32,426,006)
2028	($31,905,457)
2029	($31,393,266)
2030	($30,889,297)

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2026	($32,823,191)
2027	($32,426,006)
2028	($31,905,457)
2029	($31,393,266)
2030	($30,889,297)

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would authorize community colleges to receive formula funding for student transfers to a general academic institution if the student previously completed less than 30 semester credit hours of coursework at a general academic teaching institution at the time of transfer.

Methodology

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board estimated the number of such student transfers that would receive community college formula funding by using a forecast model based on historical actual certified data from 2020 to 2024 and assuming the fiscal year 2025 funding weights and rates remain constant through fiscal year 2030. The forecasted weighted transfer outcomes are estimated to be 9,378 in fiscal year 2026 and 9,265 in fiscal year 2027 followed byan expected downward trend through fiscal year 2030. The total number of such weighted transfers multiplied by the fiscal year 2025 transfer outcome funding rate of $3,500 would result in an estimated cost of $32,823,191 in fiscal year 2026 and $32,426,006 in fiscal year 2027, followed by an expected downward trend through fiscal year 2030.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 717 Texas Southern University, 719 Texas State Technical College System Administration, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration, 966 Howard College, 978 San Jacinto College

LBB Staff:

JMc, FV, LBO, AO, NV

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about SB1400

What does Texas SB1400 do?

SB1400 mandates the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to conduct a feasibility study on extending performance tier funding to Public Junior Colleges for students previously enrolled at general academic teaching institutions. This legislation effectively establishes the data framework for a projected $32 million annual funding expansion, requiring institutions to immediately adjust data tracking to capture this specific "reverse transfer" cohort to ensure future eligibility. Implementation Timeline Effective Date: September 1, 2025 Compliance Deadline: Internal data segmentation must begin Q4 2025 to ensure your institution's data is included in the feasibility modeling.

Who authored SB1400?