CAPITOL "TEA"

We’re just 30 days away from the final day of the legislative session, known as Sine Die. At this stage, bills that haven’t begun moving through the process face steep odds of passage. May 12 marks the deadline for House bills to be voted out of committee—any bill not heard and passed by then is effectively dead.

In the coming days, we may see lawmakers attempt to salvage stalled proposals by incorporating their language into bills that are further along in the process. This can happen either through a committee substitute, with the sponsor’s agreement before the bill advances, or as a floor amendment in either chamber.

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 1,481 public education bills filed

  • 2 sent to the Governor

  • 4 passed out of second chamber

  • 130 passed original chamber

  • 123 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

As the session progresses, a growing number of Senate bills are being scheduled for hearings in House committees while House members focus on advancing their own bills in committee ahead of the May 12 committee deadline.

On Tuesday, The House Public Education Committee is hearing four House Bills and three Senate Bills:

• HB 1325 requires school districts to transfer the children of judges, prosecuting attorneys and military service members to the campus of their choice
• HB 1655 requires school boards to adopt a policy prohibiting employees from assisting a student with social transitioning with regard to gender identity, including by using different names or pronouns for students
• HB 3312
  • requires school districts to retain video from special education cameras for 12 months, instead of 3 months, after the date of the video
  • also requires school districts to retain all recordings of an employee who is involved in an alleged incident, regardless of whether the video is a recording of the incident, until the incident has been resolved
  • prohibits a school district from limiting the number of times a parent may view a recording of an incident
  • requires a school district to release a recording of an incident for viewing by the attorney of an employee or parent involved in the incident within one week of a request from the attorney to view the recording
• HB 5526 allows school districts in counties with less than one million people to approve a program for a volunteer security program for schools and sets requirements for the program
• SB 13 establishes provisions related to school libraries. Read a full summary here.
• SB 57 requires IEPs and Section 504 plans to include necessary accommodations for students during mandatory drills and requires school district multi-hazard emergency operations plans to include provisions for students with disabilities in accordance with guidelines required to be adopted by the Texas Education Agency
• SB 207 requires school districts to excuse absences for students to attend mental health appointments

The Ways and Means Committee is still working their way through a massive number of House bills and will meet to hear a total of 26 bills on Monday. Six are related to public education:

• HB 1370/HJR 97 exempts the portion of real property used for xeriscape from property taxes
• HB 2032/HJR 119 exempts a percentage of property values from property tax based on the percentage of disability of a disabled veteran
• HB 2133 creates a property tax credit for the first year for a person who qualifies for a homestead exemption on property for the first time
• HB 4060 provides a property tax exemption for peace officers employed by a taxing entity from that taxing entities taxes
• SB 4/SJR 2:
  • increases the homestead exemption to $140,000 from $100,000
  • provides a hold harmless for I&S funding to offset the impact of the increased homestead exemption, however the current language does not actually provide districts with the same funding they would have received if not for the increased homestead exemption
  • limits any I&S hold harmless related to increased homestead exemption to the amount required to service eligible debt, including refunding of debt
  • if state aid increases, the amount of increased state aid offsets the M&O hold harmless state aid
  • applies to the 2025 tax year
• SB 23: increases the additional homestead exemption for individuals who are disabled or 65 or older to $60,000 from $10,000
• HB 4270 allows taxing units, other than municipalities or counties, to exempt all or part of a property's value from taxation for up to ten years, provided the property owner invests at least $500 in improvements or repairs within the first year of the agreement; outlines requirements for the agreement
• HB 5478 requires a charitable organization receiving a tax exemption to notify the comptroller within 30 days of any material changes, such as the sale of the property or loss of tax-exempt status and expires the exemption when the organization no longer owns the property or when the comptroller determines that the organization no longer qualifies for the exemption

The Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee will meet Monday to hear a bond related bill, HB 2889, that requires political subdivisions to provide funding to opponents of bond measures if the political subdivision spends money to provide factual information about the purpose of the bonds.

The House Higher Education Committee meets Tuesday and will hear HB 5062, which requires institutions of higher education to award course credit for a foreign language credit requirement to a student who completed a dual credit course in computer science, except if the student's major is in a foreign language.

The House Human Services Committee will meet Tuesday to hear SB 1952, which makes the Health and Human Services Commission responsible for administering the school health and related services program.

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