The District of Innovation concept, passed during the 84th Legislative Session in House Bill 1842, gives traditional independent school districts most of the flexibilities available to Texas’ open-enrollment charter schools. The flexibility derives from the district’s ability to exempt itself from state mandates that may limit its ability to implement innovative ideas.
The potential benefits of becoming a District of Innovation include:
increased local control to decide which flexibilities best suit local needs
freedom in customizing an innovation plan
autonomy in that the innovation plan does not require state approval
Please refer to the links on the right to find the original plan as well as resources provided by the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Association of School Boards.
BISD followed the process of renewing the District of Innovation plan, pursuant to Texas Education Code (TEC) and Texas Administrative Code (TAC):
A DOI plan may be renewed at any time during the term of the plan.
A district may only have one innovation plan at any given time (19 TAC §102.1311). As such, a renewed plan takes effect only after the term of the district's current innovation plan expires. In the instance that the district intends for the term of a renewed plan to begin prior to the expiration of its current plan, the renewed plan supersedes the district's current plan at that time and the current plan is considered void.
The district must repeat the adoption process outlined in 19 TAC §102.1207, however 2 specific steps are not required to be repeated (Board Resolution/Petition signed by majority of District Advisory Committee, Public Hearing by School Board on whether to develop a plan).
The term of the DOI plan may be extended for up to an additional 5 years during renewal.
