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ApplyTexas subcommittee recommends question changes; committee votes to make child-information field optional
Summary
A core-questions subcommittee reviewed ApplyTexas core application fields and recommended greater customization, and the advisory committee voted to make the child-information question optional pending board review; members cautioned about EDI impacts and lack of a test environment.
The advisory committee reviewed findings from a five-member core-questions subcommittee and voted to recommend making a household/child-information question optional while asking THECB staff to evaluate EDI mapping and testing implications.
Claudette Jenks, director of strategic initiatives and partnerships, summarized the subcommittee’s work, which reviewed core questions across “About You,” household, Texas residency, activity and achievement, education and testing sections. The subcommittee identified four main ways institutions use core questions: admissions and residency determination, duplicate-record matching and deduplication, state and institutional reporting, and F-1 international-student processing. The subcommittee recommended allowing more customization so institutions can hide irrelevant questions for certain applicant types (for example, two-year applicants), make entrance-exam questions optional, break parent/guardian sections into subsections for greater customization and consider creating a separate two-year international/F-1 application.
A specific vote was held on question 12 (the household sub-question that prompts applicants to list child/dependent information including name, date of birth and gender). Committee members debated whether to remove the question entirely or make it optional. Laura Isdell of Collin College and others said the question is used by some institutions for international-student processing; several members said any change that affects EDI mapping requires an opportunity to test. The committee agreed the question should be optional rather than removed and moved the recommendation forward to THECB leadership for consideration.
The motion to make the child-information section optional was made and seconded during the meeting and passed by voice/raise-hand vote. Committee members agreed the coordinating board should assess whether changing the field would require updates to the EDI file and a testing window, and they asked staff to bring an implementation plan to leadership.
The committee also agreed to create a residency-logic subcommittee to meet over the summer to review skip logic in the residency section; staff solicited volunteers and recorded several names for that group.
