(a) Notwithstanding § 29.001(5), § 29.010, or any other provision of this code, the commissioner or agency may not adopt or implement a performance indicator in any agency monitoring system, including the performance-based monitoring analysis system, that solely measures a school district’s or open-enrollment charter school’s aggregated number or percentage of enrolled students who receive special education services.
(b) Subsection (a) does not prohibit or limit the commissioner or agency from meeting requirements under:
(1) 20 U.S.C. § 1418(d) and its implementing regulations to collect and examine data to determine whether significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity is occurring in the state and in the school districts and open-enrollment charter schools in the state with respect to the:
(A) identification of children as children with disabilities, including the identification of children as children with particular impairments;
(B) placement of children with disabilities in particular educational settings; and
(C) incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions taken against children with disabilities, including suspensions and expulsions; or
(2) 20 U.S.C. § 1416(a)(3)(C) and its implementing regulations to address in the statewide plan the percentage of school districts and open-enrollment charter schools with disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education and related services and in specific disability categories that results from inappropriate identification.