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No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
It is anticipated that costs associated with the implementation of the bill could be absorbed by DSHS. The Texas Education Agency anticipates that any additional work resulting from the passage of the bill could be absorbed within current resources.
There would be some administrative costs to school districts to report immunization data for the district as a whole and by campus. There would also be some administrative costs to de-identify immunization exemption records and for a district or campus to provide this information to a student's parent or guardian if requested. These costs would vary depending on the size of the districts, the number of exemptions granted, and the number of requests received from a student's parent or guardian.
The bill would amend Chapter 81 of the Health and Safety
Code and Chapter 38 of the Education Code. The bill would require the
Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to include vaccine preventable
diseases in their epidemiological reports of disease outbreaks. DSHS would be
required to submit a biennial report to the legislature containing outbreaks of
vaccine preventable diseases and de-identified immunization exemption
information, including the number of persons claiming an exemption from the
immunization requirements.
Every school district would be required to submit de-identified immunization exemption information to DSHS. DSHS would be required to publish an annual report of the immunization status of students for each school district and for each school campus on its website. Upon a student’s parent or legal guardian’s request, a school district or school campus would be required to provide a copy of the de-identified immunization exemption information.
The purpose of the legislation is to enhance transparency regarding epidemiological records and immunization exemption information while protecting the privacy of individuals who have claimed an exemption. We support HB 2474 because it promotes our limited government principle.
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