CAPITOL "TEA"

After today, there are just 4 days left in the 89th Legislative Session! Yesterday was a major deadline with both chambers needing to pass any remaining bills by the end of the day. At this point, the only work remaining is to resolve differences between the chambers on bills that have passed both the House and Senate.

For the rest of session, every day is a major deadline. Tomorrow is the last day for the House to either concur in Senate amendments to House bills or request a conference committee. The one exception to this is if the House requests a conference committee, they can later discharge that committee and concur in the Senate amendments. Any conference committee reports must be distributed in the House by the end of the day Saturday. Sunday is the last day for both the House and the Senate to adopt conference committee reports and concur in any remaining bills.

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 106 remaining viable public education bills
• 80 of those have agreed versions that have been approved by both chambers
• 21 of those have already been signed by the Governor
• 26 more education bills remain with differences to be worked out

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

• HB 2, the school funding bill, has a final, agreed version, however, the bill continues to await House action to concur in the Senate’s amendments which could happen at any time.
• HB 4, the assessment and accountability bill, remains in active negotiations. The House is expected to refuse to concur and request a conference committee.
• HB 27 makes changes to required economics courses to emphasize personal financial literacy. The Senate amendment simply delayed implementation by one year.
• HB 100 limits school district ability to adopt instructional materials that were rejected by the State Board of Education through the new instructional material review and adoption process. Again, the Senate amendment simply delayed implementation on year.
• HB 121 is related to school safety. At this time, the Senate amendments were not available so it remains unclear whether the bill is headed to conference committee or if the House will concur.
• SB 4 is the property tax bill that increases the school tax homestead exemption to $140,000. The House amendments adjust the hold harmless language in the bill to ensure school districts are truly held harmless. The Senate concurred in these amendments earlier today.
• SB 12 is a parental rights bill that requires additional notifications to parents, bans DEI practices, and includes changes to school district grievance procedures. The House version of the bill removed the requirement for districts to offer open-enrollment and allowed districts to use targeted recruitment practices. The Senate refused to concur and appointed conferees. The House has not yet appointed their conferees.
• SB 13 is school library legislation. The House version of the bill main the newly created School Library Advisory Councils optional unless 20% of district parents requested the creation of such Councils. The Senate refused to concur in the amendments earlier today and has appointed conferees.

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