(a) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is entitled to receive the state available school fund apportionment based on the average daily attendance in the department’s educational programs of students who are at least three years of age and not older than 21 years of age.
(b) A classroom teacher, full-time librarian, full-time school counselor certified under Subchapter B, Chapter 21, or full-time school nurse employed by the department is entitled to receive as a minimum salary the monthly salary specified by § 21.402. A classroom teacher, full-time librarian, full-time school counselor, or full-time school nurse may be paid, from funds appropriated to the department, a salary in excess of the minimum specified by that section, but the salary may not exceed the rate of pay for a similar position in the public schools of an adjacent school district.

(c) The commissioner, with the assistance of the comptroller, shall determine the amount that the department would have received from the available school fund if Chapter 28, Acts of the 68th Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1984, had not transferred statutorily dedicated taxes from the available school fund to the foundation school fund. That amount, minus any amount the schools do receive from the available school fund, shall be set apart as a separate account in the foundation school fund and appropriated to the department for educational purposes.