CAPITOL "TEA"

This week marked two major deadlines in the House. Of the 1,481 education-related bills filed this session, only 558 remain potentially viable, with the important caveat that a bill can always be revived as an amendment added onto another bill. The next major deadline for the session comes this Saturday, May 24, which is the last day for House committees to report out Senate Bills and Joint Resolutions. As a result, if a bill has not made it out of committee in the House by the end of the day Saturday, it will be dead (again, as dead as something can be until the end of the session).

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 1,481 public education bills filed
• 3 have signed by the Governor
• 13 have been sent to the Governor
• 7 have passed both chambers
• 188 have passed original chamber
• 84 passed out of committee

Bills are prioritized based on the expected impact to the district or the level of public attention garnered by the bill, not based on the preferences of the district. High priority bills are either a state leadership priority, related to a Plano ISD legislative priority, would require significant resources to implement a change in district policy, practice, or procedures, or would otherwise significantly impact the district.

LEGISLATION HIGHLIGHTS

UPDATES ON MAJOR LEGISLATION

• HB 2 is the priority school funding legislation. The Senate released its version earlier this week. The bill spends $8 billion, but most of the money in the bill comes with new requirements that remove district discretion and limit the ability of districts to respond to inflationary increases. The Senate Education K-16 Committee also provided an executive summary. The bill was heard in the committee yesterday and left pending.
• SB 260 (House Version/Senate Version) increases the school safety allotment. The Senate version of this bill has been added into the Senate version of HB 2.
• HB 123 and SB 2252 are companion bills that address early literacy and numeracy instruction and intervention. They have been added into the Senate version of HB 2.
• SB 2253 is Chairman Creighton’s priority legislation regarding teacher preparation. The bill was also added to the Senate version of HB 2.
• HB 6 (House Version/Senate Version) is the priority school discipline bill. It passed out of the Senate Education K-16 Committee yesterday afternoon. See a full breakdown of the bill and the differences in the two versions in last week’s newsletter.
• SB 10 is the Senate’s priority legislation that would require school districts to put up a poster of the ten commandments in every classroom if the posters, or funds to purchase the posters, are donated to the school. The bill passed out of the House public education committee and is expected to pass the House.
• SB 11 is the Senate’s priority legislation related to providing for a time of prayer and reading a religious text at school for students and staff. The bill was voted out of the House Public Education Committee on Saturday and now heads to the House floor.
• SB 12 (House Version/Senate Version) is a priority bill related to parental rights. The bill makes significant changes to school district grievance policies and requires schools to hear grievances even if the grievant does not follow the grievance procedures. The bill also creates an Office of Inspector General for education and moves appeal authority from the Commissioner to the OIG. Finally, the bill gives the OIG significant authority to overrule school board decisions that specifically do not violate the law.
• SB 13 is the Senate’s priority legislation related to school libraries. The bill was voted out of the House Public Education Committee this morning and now heads to the House floor.
• SB 571 relates to educator misconduct reporting and the “Do Not Hire Registry”. The bill expands the registry to include non-certified employees and shortens reporting timelines for educator misconduct.
• HB 3372 prohibits school district administrators from being paid for personal services provided to another district or to a company that does business with a school district. The bill was passed off the House floor after it was amended to clarify that administrators can still provide personal services for free for other districts.
• HB 4623 makes public schools liable for negligent hiring, employment, or supervision of an employee who engages in sexual misconduct or failure to report child abuse. The bill caps damages at $500,000 per act or omission. This bill passed the House earlier this week and now goes to the Senate.

HOUSE PUBLIC EDUCATION COMMITTEE

• SB 204 requires trustees to complete training on the rights of a parent regarding the education of their child and requires TEA to develop a handbook explaining parental rights regarding education of their child.
• SB 570 requires districts to adopt an attendance policy that includes specific information, an option for parents to receive notifications about absences, and an opportunity for parents to meet with campus staff about absences.
• SB 735 requires school districts to submit reports to the TEA regarding holocaust remembrance week instruction. The bill also creates a grant program to provide support for holocaust remembrance week education and a pilot program to include information on providing holocaust remembrance week education in educator prep programs.
• SB 784 prohibits districts from using District of Innovation to exempt themselves from the requirement to accept the transfer of a student of a peace officer and allows students of peace officers to transfer to any school district without tuition.
• SB 1207 requires the SBOE to include information related to adoption in the parenting and paternity awareness program currently required in the high school health curriculum.
• SB 1396 prohibits the SBOE from adopting standards from national standards, including those developed by the Future of Sex Education Initiative, and prohibits districts from selecting human sexuality curriculum materials based on these standards.
• SB 1447 requires the standards adopted by TEA for use of electronic devices and software applications to provide for exceptions to the standards for a student with a disability to use assistive technology in accordance with their IEP or Section 504 plan
• SB 2392 requires principals or their designee to notify the chief administrative officer of the school district, school police, and local municipal law enforcement authorities within 48 hours if they have reasonable grounds to believe certain criminal activities have occurred on school property or during school-related activities, including deadly conduct, terroristic threats, drug-related offenses, possession of certain weapons, human trafficking, sexual offenses, and certain felonies, and other criminal offenses that could lead to student expulsion. The bill also requires the chief administrative officer of a school district to notify applicable law enforcement immediately upon learning that the principal or designee failed to report and creates a civil penalty for principals or chief administrative officers failing to report.
• SB 2540 requires an agreement between two contiguous districts to adjust their boundary to include any terms of the agreement that will continue to apply and a brief explanation of the privileges, rights, and responsibilities of each district.

OTHER PUBLIC EDUCATION BILLS IN HOUSE COMMITTEES

• SB 414 requires bond ballot propositions to include the estimated interest to be paid and the combined principal and interest required to be paid.
• SB 2395 prohibits the use of unspent bonds on anything other than the specific purposes for which the bonds were initially authorized or to retire the bonds.
• SB 2529 requires the 60% of the governing body of a political subdivision to approve the issuance of bonds and requires 75% of the governing body of a political subdivision to approve a tax rate that exceeds the voter approval tax rate.
• SB 2520 ensures if a school district's tax levy on an individual who qualifies for the over 65 or disabled frozen tax levy is less than the individual would otherwise be pay under the frozen levy, the individual is taxed at the lesser level.

SENATE COMMITTEES

The Senate rules only require 24 hours’ notice to post committee hearings. While many committees have posted their notices further in advance, the end of session usually results in shorter notice as committees race to hear bills. As a result, no Senate Committees hearing education bills have posted hearings for next week at this time.

CONTACTING YOUR REPRESENTATIVES

As the legislative session winds down, legislators are continuing to consider important legislation for the future of Texas. To contact your legislators and share your thoughts, go to https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov, type in your address, and learn who represents you at the state level. You can call or email them anytime.

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