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HB 6
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Clarifies that charter schools may only deny admission for behavior related reasons to a student who has been placed in a DAEP or JJAEP, been expelled, been convicted of a criminal offense, or has a juvenile court adjudication
- Prohibits school districts from exempting themselves from any portion of Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code in a local innovation plan
- Makes professional employees of a school district immune from disciplinary proceedings by the school district or the State Board for Educator Certification for reporting a violation of Chapter 37 or any action taken in good faith to remove a student from class
- Allows parents to use the supplemental special education services grant funding to receive crisis prevention and intervention training
- Requires school district codes of conduct to allow the appropriate administrator to place a student in DAEP for a first-time offense of possession or use of a vape
- Clarifies that a student receiving special education services may be disciplined for student code of conduct violations prior to a manifestation review, provided that the discipline does not result in a change in the student's educational placement
- Requires a single person at each campus to be designated to serve as a campus behavior coordinator and allows additional staff to assist in the performance of the campus behavior coordinator's duties provided that the campus behavior coordinator personally verifies all school discipline provisions are appropriately implemented
- Requires the campus behavior coordinator to monitor disciplinary referrals and report to the campus threat assessment team any student who engages in terroristic threat, unlawfully carrying weapons, an offense related to prohibited weapons, exhibiting, using or threatening to exhibit or use a firearm, or any concerning student behavioral trends that might pose a serious risk of violence to the student or others
- Allows school boards to adopt a policy for parental involvement in school disciplinary placements that must provide for:
- the principal, campus behavior coordinator, or other appropriate administrator to notify the parent of a student who has been placed in DAEP or expelled of the right to request a behavioral agreement
- a reduction in the period of disciplinary placement if the student and parent comply with the provisions of a behavioral agreement
- Requires behavioral agreements developed to include in writing the specific reduction that will occur if the parent and student comply with the agreement
- Requires the Commissioner to develop a model behavioral agreement
- Requires a school district that adopts a policy for parental involvement in school disciplinary placements to include the provisions of the policy in the student code of conduct
- Allows teachers to remove students from their class if they repeatedly interfere with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students or with their classmates' ability to learn, if the student demonstrates behavior that is unruly, disruptive, or abusive toward another person, or if the student engages in bullying
- Eliminates the requirement that a teacher document the behavior prior to removal
- Requires the teacher, the campus behavior coordinator, or an administrator to notify the parent of the student's removal
- Requires written consent of the teacher or a return to class plan to return a student to the teacher's classroom
- Allows the student to appeal the removal to the school's placement review committee or the threat assessment team
- Clarifies that only out-of-school suspensions are limited to three days and that in-school suspensions are not subject to time limits
- Requires a review of any student who is placed in in-school suspension every 10 days and documentation for any suspension that continues beyond that time
- Requires schools to provide behavioral support services and comparable educational services to students placed in in-school suspension
- Allows the out-of-school suspension of students below third grade and students who are homeless for conduct that threatens the immediate health and safety of other students in the class or documented conduct that results in repeated or significant disruption to the classroom
- Allows a principal or other appropriate administrator to place a student in in-school suspension instead of out-of-school suspension if the parent demonstrates that the parent is unable to provide suitable supervision for the student for out-of-school suspension
- Removes the mandatory placement in DAEP for possession or use of a vape
- Requires a student to be placed in DAEP for harassment of a school employee or volunteer regardless of whether the offense occurred on school property or at a school activity
- Requires a student to be placed in DAEP for the offense of deadly conduct, the offense of disorderly conduct involving a firearm, or the offense of unlawfully carrying weapons, regardless of whether the offense occurred on school property or at a school activity
- Allows a student to be placed in DAEP for the offense of disruptive activities, intentional and repeated disruption of classes, or possession and use of a vape
- Requires a student who is not placed in DAEP for possession or use of a vape to be placed in in-school suspension for 10 school days
- Makes the following conduct subject to a mandatory expulsion regardless of whether it occurs on school property or at a school activity
- unlawfully carrying weapons or offenses related to prohibited weapons
- aggravated assault
- sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault
- arson
- murder or attempted murder
- indecency with a child
- kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping
- burglary or aggravated burglary
- manslaughter
- criminally negligent homicide
- felony distribution of THC or a dangerous drug
- assault against a school employee or volunteer
- exhibiting, using, or threatening to exhibit or use a firearm
- Allows a student who has been expelled to be placed in a virtual expulsion program if the student would not be enrolled in a JJAEP
- Requires school districts to ensure students expelled to a virtual expulsion program have suitable computer equipment and internet access
- Requires a review of placement in a virtual expulsion program every 45 days
- Requires teachers who provide virtual instruction for the program to complete a professional development course on virtual instruction and prohibits districts from requiring a teacher to teach virtually and in person simultaneously
- Prohibits TEA from withholding any state funding or imposing a penalty on a school district based on the number of students who have been expelled, placed in a DAEP, or suspended
- Requires campus threat assessment teams to include the campus behavior coordinator
- Requires threat assessment teams assessing a student who receives special education services to include an educational diagnostician, behavior specialist, special education teacher assigned to the student, licensed behavior analyst, licensed clinical or master social worker, or school psychologist
- Allows a school district to offer to each student enrolled in the district access to mental health services provided by the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, if the parent provides written consent
- Prohibits a district from requiring a student to participate or allowing a student to participate without written parental consent
- Prohibits a school district from sharing any education records with the Consortium
- Requires the Consortium to include data on the percentage of participants who were prescribed a psychotropic drug, referred to a health provider, completed program treatment goals, and were provided information on consortium research programs at discharge in their biennial report
- Requires the Consortium to include the percentage of potential participants for whom a parent declined to give consent and who were referred but not enrolled because of needing more emergent care in their biennial report
- Requires the TEA to provide a report on all laws related to school discipline that were amended or added to school districts by the first day of the 2025-2026 school year and requires school districts to provide the report to parents
HB 367
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Revises the certification from a physician required to excuse a student absence for a serious or life-threatening illness or related treatment to include a statement that the illness is serious or life threatening and a statement that the student's illness makes school attendance infeasible during the specified period
- Requires school districts to adopt a form for parents to provide the required certification from a physician and prohibits districts from requiring information beyond what is required by the form
HB 1481
Became law
Effective immediately
- Requires school boards to adopt and implement a written policy prohibiting students from using cell phones, tablets, smartwatches, radio devices, paging devices, or any other electronic device capable of communication while on school property during the school day, unless the device was provided to a student by the school district, and requires the policy to include disciplinary measures which may include confiscation of the device
- Allows the required policy to prohibit a student from bringing such a device on school property or to designate a method for the storage of the device while the student is on school property during the school day
- Allows the required policy to include provision for disposing of a confiscated device after having provided the student's parent 90 days written notice of the school's intent to dispose of the device
- Requires the policy to allow use of a device as necessary to implement an IEP or Section 504 plan, by a student with a documented need based on a directive from a physician, or as necessary to comply with a health or safety requirement imposed by law or the district's or school's safety protocols
- Requires the TEA to publish a model policy
- Requires school boards to adopt a policy within 90 days of the effective date of the Act
HB 2757
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Allows school boards to adopt a policy to allow a parent who is an active-duty member of a foreign military stationed in Texas to establish their child's age for enrollment eligibility by demonstrating that the student will turn the required age during the school year for which the person is seeking admission
SB 207
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Requires school districts to excuse student absences for appointments with mental health professionals
SB 226
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Allows parents of students who are the subject of a parental child safety placement agreement to establish residency for enrollment by providing a copy of a letter from the Department of Family and Protective Services indicating that the child is subject to such an agreement and that the address of the student is located in the district
- Requires child safety placement agreements executed on or after the effective date of the act to include the letter that can be used for residency
SB 326
Became law
Effective for the 2025-2026 school year
- Requires school districts to define "antisemistism" as a certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred toward Jews and use the examples provided in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's "Working Definition of Antisemitism" adopted on May 26, 2016 when determining whether conduct that violates the district's student code of conduct was motivated by antisemitism
SB 991
Became law
Effective 9/1/2025
- Adds students who are "chronically absent" and students who fail to attend school without excuse for 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year to the definition of students at risk of dropping out of school for the purposes of compensatory, intensive, and accelerated instruction
- Defines chronically absent to mean a student who is absent for more than 10% of the school's required operation and instructional time within a school year or an enrollment period that exceeds 30 instructional days
- Requires school districts to report whether students who are absent without excuse for 10 or more days within a six-month period in the same school year are receiving compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instructional services
- Requires school districts to report the number of chronically absent students enrolled at each campus in total and whether those students are receiving compensatory, intensive, or accelerated instructional services
- Requires TEA to annually publish data for each campus and district related to the above requirements
SB 1049
Became law
Effective 9/1/2025
- Requires school districts to excuse absences for students to attend a course in religious instruction offered by a private entity for at least 1, but no more than 5 hours per week, upon the request of a parent
- Requires school districts to adopt a policy for excusing such absences by January 1, 2026
- The policy must require the following:
- the parent to provide written consent
- the private entity to maintain attendance records and provide them to the district
- the private entity, the parent, or the student to assume responsibility for transportation to and from any location
- the private entity to make provisions for and assume liability for the student while the student is under the care of the private entity
- the student to assume responsibility for any schoolwork issued during the absence
- The policy must prohibit the following:
- the district from using district funds to facilitate the provision of the course
- the private entity from offering the course on district property, unless under a content-neutral policy that provides equal access to community organizations
- The policy may not interfere with the ability of the student's parent to request or access such a course for the student
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