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Foreign Exchange Student

This waiver allows districts or charter schools to limit the number of foreign exchange students to 5 or more per high school under . 

• Approval of this waiver is not retroactive and takes effect on the date that the agency approves the application.
• Districts and charter schools must enroll foreign exchange students who arrive or request enrollment prior to the waiver approval date.

Waiver Guidelines and FAQ

• Foreign Exchange Student Waiver Guidelines
• Foreign Exchange Student Waiver FAQ's

Modified Schedule/State Assessment Testing Days

This waiver allows the district or charter school to modify class schedules so that students who are not being tested attend school after the state assessment testing period has ended, reducing interruptions during the testing period. 

Students who are not being tested must still meet the maximum two-through-four-hour requirement for funding (see SAAH 3.6.6 Attendance Accounting during Testing Days).

Staff Development

This waiver allows districts and charter schools to provide staff training on educational strategies designed to improve student performance in place of student instruction during the school year. The waiver provides up to 2,100 total minutes for professional development for districts and charter schools that provide operational and instructional minutes.

Effective with the 2025–2026 school year, districts and open-enrollment charter schools operating on a four-day school week are not eligible to receive a staff development waiver.

Each district and open-enrollment charter school may determine how to apply its approved Staff Development Minutes Waiver. For example, schools may offer early release, late start, full-day staff development, or a combination. However, total staff development waiver minutes may not exceed 2,100 minutes per year.

This waiver applies only to staff development ¶¶ÒõÊÓƵ in place of student instruction during the school year. Staff Development Minutes Waiver minutes may not be used before the first day of student instruction or after the last day of student instruction.

On staff development days when students attend part of the day, districts and open-enrollment charter school must provide at least 120 minutes of student instruction to receive full ADA funding.

Instructional minutes are defined in the SAAH as the portion of the school day in which instruction takes place, along with certain exceptions. Any waiver minutes reported must reflect actual staff development minutes ¶¶ÒõÊÓƵ.

Districts and charter schools should continue to provide high-quality staff development that supports improved student outcomes.

Teacher Portal for the Texas Assessment Program Data

TEA provides a teacher portal for assessment data that complies with .

Districts that choose to meet requirements by providing teacher access through a local student data system must apply for an expedited waiver from TEA. The local data portal must meet the following requirements:

• Be accessible to all teachers in the core subject areas (reading language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) 
• Allow teachers to view their own students’ assessment data. 
• Allow districts to decide whether to extend access to non-core teachers, while ensuring a valid educational purpose under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Include student data for the past 10 years, showing progress in student achievement.
• Make student data available on or before the first instructional day of the following school year
• Allow comparisons of student performance at the classroom, campus, district, and state levels. 
• Include a link to the TEA website for statewide reports (statewide data does not need to be stored locally)
• As a condition of granting a waiver from the state teacher portal, local systems must make all required data available to teachers.

Districts and charter schools that receive this waiver must still provide teacher-student linking information in summer PEIMS submissions. There is no waiver from the PEIMS submission requirement.