The House Public Education Committee is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m., Tuesday, March 16, to hear testimony on the following bills:
HB 129 González, Mary
As filed, this bill creates a new graduation requirement of one credit in digital citizenship. It also would add to the topics that should be covered under essential knowledge and skills related to “digital citizenship.” The definition of digital citizenship would include cyberbullying, as well as digital ethics, etiquette, safety, and security, including the identification of hate speech, racism, and discrimination. It would also include media literacy, including the ability to identify credible sources of information.
HB 159 González, Mary
Would change the training and staff development requirements of educators and principals in order to better serve and better educate students with disabilities. Find details on this bill’s provisions by searching for HB 159 in TASA’s Bill Tracker.
HB 353 Dutton
Would specify that for evaluation purposes in the “closing the gap” domain of the state accountability system, disaggregated data should be used from African-American and Hispanic students as a whole as well as disaggregated by sex. The bill would also require that information reported may only be used for accountability purposes after the accountability ratings have been assigned for the 2024-2025 school year.
HB 445 Allison
Would add “the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion” to the list of positive character traits that are part of the required instruction per the TEKS for grades K-12.
HB 725 Patterson | et al.
Would allow a child who has been in foster care in another state or territory to qualify for free public school prekindergarten programs, so long as the child currently lives in Texas, beginning with the 2021-2022 school year.
HB 759 Harless
Would amend the law governing Threat Assessment Teams in public schools. It would require that threat assessments of individuals be completed within 30 days of commencement of the assessment. Would also require that within 10 days of a determination that a student poses a serious risk of violence to themself or others the threat assessment team must enter the student’s threat assessment into the threat assessment database and make a notation in the student’s cumulative record that the student is included in the threat assessment database. Find more details on this bill’s provisions by searching for HB 759 in TASA’s Bill Tracker.
HB 785 Allen
Would address behavior improvement and intervention plans for certain public school students, as well as notification and documentation requirements for certain behavior management techniques. It would require that a behavior improvement or intervention plan that is included in a student’s IEP must be reviewed at least once a year and at times more frequently in order to address changes in the child’s circumstances or the safety of the student or others. Find more details on this bill’s provisions by searching for HB 785 in TASA’s Bill Tracker.
HB 1080 Patterson | et al.
Would ensure the eligibility for participation in University Interscholastic League activities of certain public school students who receive outpatient mental health services.
HB 1114 Thierry
Adds mental health services and mental health education to the services that school-based health centers may offer public school students.
HB 1603 Huberty
Would make individual graduation committees and other alternative methods to satisfy certain public high school graduation requirements permanent in state law (removes the expiration date of September 1, 2023).
Use TASA’s Bill Tracker to learn more about education-related bills filed in the 87th session.
