CAPITOL "TEA"

The Senate is moving at lightning speed as SB 26, Chairman Creighton’s teacher pay raise bill, was filed, heard in committee, and voted out of committee all in one week. In his layout of the bill, Chairman Creighton reiterated that the teacher pay raise is designed to be an ongoing allotment so that as teachers reach their third and fifth year in the future, they will be provided with the associated pay raise.

The new House Public Education committee will meet for the first time on Tuesday next week to hear invited testimony only from the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Workforce Commission on the state of public education and the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative.

Every committee hearing has a combination of invited testimony and public testimony. Invited testimony is usually supporters of the bill they’re hearing, invited by members of the committee, and those speakers get a much longer time to present and get a lot more questions from the committee members. Public testimony is open to anyone interested in providing input, and is usually limited to two minutes of oral testimony. The public can also submit written testimony only.

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 4,702 total bills filed

• 827 public education bills filed

• 101 bills related to property tax

• 85 bills related to school district governance

• 68 bills related to school finance

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

This week was a major week for education-related bill filings. The Senate’s priority teacher pay bill was filed Tuesday and voted out of committee Thursday. Additionally, several priority House bills were filed on Thursday including the House’s school finance bill and education savings account legislation.

HB 2, the House’s school finance bill:

• Spends $3.2 billion to increase the basic allotment by $220
• Requires 40% of the increase to be spent on compensation, and 75% of that 40% specifically on teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses but exempts employees with poor performance
• Reforms the teacher preparation and certification process, prohibits districts from having uncertified teachers for any course in the foundation curriculum, requires districts to pay a first-year teacher with a certification more than those without, and provides a one-time $1,000 payment for currently employed uncertified teachers who become certified in the 2025-26 school year
• Spends $1.8 billion to increase special education funding and transitions to funding based on the intensity of services, provides $1,000 for each special education evaluation and increases outcomes bonuses related to CCMR for special education
• Spends $1.1 billion significantly increasing small and mid-sized allotment weights
• Increases the compensatory education allotment by roughly $32 a student
• Creates a fine arts allotment of $51 per student or $102 per educationally disadvantaged students in average daily attendance (ADA)
• Creates a “High School Advising Program” in which districts receive $50,000 for each trained advisor up to one for every 200 students in grades 11 and 12, but allows funding to be reduced or removed if districts don’t meet certain performance standards
• Broadens the Teacher Incentive Allotment by increasing TIA allotments for existing designations, adding a new “acknowledged” designation, requires TEA to provide local designation system examples, and provides grant funding to assist in implementation
• Creates an “enhanced” designation for school districts that expand performance based pay to principals and assistant principals and implements a compensation plan based on performance for all staff and that does not include across-the-board pay raises for instructional staff except for significant inflation, and provides a 10% increase in all TIA allotments for enhanced districts
• Expands eligibility for Pre-K to special education students and funds Pre-K programs administered by the Texas Workforce Commission and Texas A&M University System
• Increases the Additional Days School Year (ADSY) funding by 50% for districts that provide 200 instructional days for k-8 students, reduces the eligibility threshold for ADSY from 180 to 175 and provides grant funding for implementation
• Provides a hold harmless for districts who experience an ADA decline of more than 5%, capped at $50 million statewide and a hold harmless for property tax relief
• Creates a new state aid insurance allotment for districts along the gulf coast, including regions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, of $55 per ADA
• Provides funding for districts that lose funding due to state value assignments in the Comptroller’s Property Value Study

HB 3 on Education Savings Accounts (ESA)

• Provides an education savings account for eligible students at an amount of 85% of the statewide estimated per student average for state and local funding plus state TRS contributions along with additional funding for any student with a disability equal to what their home district would have received up to $30,000
• Provides up to $2,000 for homeschool students
• Prioritizes students in the following order:
  • Student with a disability and a household income below 500% of federal poverty guidelines
  • Students with a household income below 200% of federal poverty guidelines
  • Students with a household income between 200% and 500% of the poverty guidelines
  • Students with a household income above 500% of federal poverty guidelines
• Requires the comptroller to maintain a waiting list of students, to pre approved providers and vendors who can receive ESA funds, to audit accounts,
• Approved vendors include accredited private schools that administer a nationally norm-referenced assessment or a state assessment and accredited public schools that are providing services to students not drawing ADA funding
• Outlines what an ESA can be used for, including tuition, fees, online school, textbooks, uniforms, transportation, private tutors, etc.
• Prohibits vendors from charging more to ESA program participants than the standard amount
• Requires districts to conduct a full initial evaluation for special education within 45 days of a request of parents of students not enrolled in public school and requires the district to develop an IEP

HB 4 addresses assessments and Commissioner authority related to the accountability system.

• Revises the existing assessment system that must be designed to support classroom instruction and reduces the length of the assessment
• Allows the Commissioner’s technical advisory committee to determine whether a new assessment is valid and reliable
• Requires the Commissioner to include classroom teachers in scoring non-multiple choice questions
• Allows passing ASVAB and completion of a JROTC program to count for military readiness under CCMR indicators
• Requires TEA to study CCMR indicators to determine their correlation to postsecondary success and provide value to each indicator based on the strength of their correlation with successful outcomes
• Allows the Commissioner to modify standards for each indicator annually and requires the Commissioner to increase standards to ensure that by the 15th year, Texas ranks in the top 5 of states on NAEP performance
• Requires the Commissioner to only increase standards every 5th year and requires the Commissioner to provide "What if" scores for each of the two years prior to an increase
• Requires the Commissioner to establish a list of IBCs and requires the Commissioner to post the planned removal of an IBC from the list for two years prior to removal
• Clarifies that the Commissioner must issue A-F ratings each year
• Prohibits the Commissioner from assigning "Not Rated" to all schools and districts on a statewide basis
• Allows the Commissioner to issue ratings later than August 15 in years when the performance standards change
• Allows the Commissioner to change standards at any time prior to issuing ratings
• Eliminates the provision requiring the Commissioner to provide a document explaining standards prior to the school year
• Creates a local accountability system grant program
• Requires the Commissioner to appoint a conservator for a school district if the school district initiates or maintains an action against the state, a state agency, or an officer of the state
• Requires interventions and sanctions to proceed regardless of whether the issuance of accountability ratings is enjoined
• Prohibits school districts from using funds to initiate or maintain actions against the state
• Prevents claimants from paying attorneys in actions against the TEA, SBOE, or SBEC until after a final resolution of the case and only if the claimant is successful in the action

HB 6 addresses student discipline, increasing the ability of schools and teachers to respond to behavior issues. The bill:

• Clarifies that the three-day limit on suspension applies only to out-of-school suspension.
• Expands the reasons for which students in grades below third grade can be placed in out of school suspension to include conduct that threatens immediate health and safety of other students in the classroom or conduct that results in repeated or significant disruption to the classroom.
• Removes the requirement to place students in DAEP for using or is under the influence or sells, gives or delivers to another person marijuana.
• Removes the requirement to place students in DAEP for possessing, using, selling giving, or delivering to another person an e-cigarette
• Requires DAEP placement if a student commits an offense
  • of deadly conduct (defined in Section 22.05)
  • of disorderly conduct involving a firearm
  • of unlawfully carrying unlawful weapons (defined section 46.02)
  • (the above essentially removes the need for a court or jury to find that a student has engaged in the delinquent conduct above)
• Makes conduct subject to a mandatory expulsion if it occurred on school property or at a school sponsored or school-related activity also subject to a mandatory expulsion even if it did not occur on school property or at a school sponsored or school-related activity
• Allows districts to place expelled students in virtual or in person DAEP or a juvenile justice alternative education program and provides ADA for these students
• Allows a district to request a court order to remove a special education or 504 student from their educational setting if a threat assessment determines the student’s presence is substantially likely to result in physical harm
  • Requires the court to decide on the request within five days if the district provided substantial evidence to satisfy requirements and, if so, may order the district to remove the student from the current educational setting
    • Requires the court to consider results of a threat assessment conducted, any findings made by the ARD committee or 504 committee and any other relevant information

SB 26 addresses teacher pay and benefits. The bill:

• Expands the Teacher Incentive Allotment by allowing more teachers to become designated and providing resources to assist districts in adopting the Teacher Incentive Allotment
• Provides ongoing raises for teachers with 3 or more years of experience:
• In districts with more than 5,000 students
  • $2,500 for teachers with 3 or 4 years of experience
  • $5,500 for teachers with 5 or more years of experience
• In districts with less than 5,000 students
  • $5,000 for teachers with 3 or 4 years of experience
  • $10,000 for teachers with 5 or more years of experience
• Makes children of classroom teachers eligible for full-day preK.

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