| (a) An educator preparation program (EPP) under this
chapter shall be reviewed at least once every five years; however,
a review may be conducted at any time at the discretion of Texas Education
Agency (TEA) staff. Beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year, continuing
approval reviews will evaluate implementation of the requirements
of this chapter, including implementation during the 2025-2026 academic
year.
(b) To conduct the five-year review, TEA staff may
conduct either:
(1) an onsite visit, in which TEA staff go in person
to an EPP's physical location to review the EPP's evidence of compliance;
or
(2) a desk review, in which TEA staff review the EPP's
evidence of compliance remotely.
(c) To efficiently administer and implement the State
Board for Educator Certification (SBEC)'s purpose under this chapter
and the Texas Education Code (TEC), TEA staff must use the following
risk factors to determine the need for discretionary reviews and the
type of five-year reviews:
(1) a history of the EPP's compliance with state law
and SBEC rules, standards, and procedures, with consideration given
to:
(A) the seriousness of any violation of a rule, standard,
or procedure;
(B) whether the violation resulted in an action being
taken against the program;
(C) whether the violation was promptly remedied by
the program;
(D) the number of alleged violations; and
(E) any other matter considered to be appropriate in
evaluating the EPP's compliance history;
(2) whether the EPP meets the accountability standards
under TEC, §21.045; and
(3) whether the EPP is accredited by other organizations.
(d) When an EPP consolidates with another EPP as described
in §228.21 of this title (relating to Program Consolidation or
Closure), TEA staff shall conduct a review of the resulting program
within one year after the effective date for the consolidation.
(e) The EPP under review must pay the fee for the continuing
approval review, as set out in §229.9 of this title (relating
to Fees for Educator Preparation Program Approval and Accountability),
prior to the start date of the review.
(f) At the time of the review, the EPP shall submit
to TEA staff a status report regarding its compliance with existing
standards and requirements for EPPs and documentary evidence of its
compliance. To determine whether the EPP's evidence of compliance
is sufficient, the EPP shall be scored on a rubric developed and published
by TEA staff. Eighty percent of the records reviewed must be compliant
with applicable requirements in the Texas Administrative Code and
TEC. Evidence of compliance is described in the figure provided in
this subsection.
Attached Graphic
(g) An EPP's participation in a continuing approval
review pilot may serve as the EPP's required five-year review as prescribed
in subsection (a) of this section.
(h) An EPP is responsible for establishing procedures
and practices to ensure the security of information against unauthorized
or accidental access, disclosure, modification, destruction, or misuse
prior to the expiration of the retention period. Unless specified
otherwise, the EPP must retain evidence of compliance described in
the figure provided in subsection (f) of this section for a period
of five years. The EPP shall retain documents that evidence a candidate's
eligibility for admission to the EPP and all evidence of a candidate's
completion of all EPP requirements for a period of five years after
a candidate completes, withdraws from, or is discharged or released
from the EPP.
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