The House Public Education Committee will meet at 8 a.m., Tuesday, March 23, to hear testimony on the following bills:
HB 144 González, Mary
Would require school districts to prepare an individualized education program supplement (to be included with the written statement of the child’s individualized education program) for each child who was enrolled in a school district’s special education program during the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year. Find more details what the supplement must include by searching for HB 144 in TASA’s Bill Tracker. This bill is the companion to Sen. Jose Menendez’s SB 89, heard in the Senate Education Committee March 18.
HB 363 VanDeaver
Would require that any entity that operates a website, online service, online application, or mobile application used primarily for school purposes use unique identifier established by the Texas Student Data System. Would allow school districts, charter schools, regional education service centers or another local educational agency to require operators to adhere to a state-approved student data sharing agreement that requires the use of unique identifiers. National assessment providers would be exempted from the requirements of using a unique identifier if the provider receives covered information solely to provide access to such things as employment, educational scholarships, financial aid, or educational resources for middle school through high school students. This bill is identical to Sen. Charles Perry’s SB 1526 which has not yet been heard by the Senate Education Committee.
HB 999 Bernal
Would allow an individual graduation committee to determine student qualifications for graduation without considering performance on any end-of-course assessment instruments. This would apply to all 12th grade students for the 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 school years. Effective immediately if approved by two-thirds vote of both houses; otherwise, effective September 1, 2021.
HB 1525 Huberty
This bill is known as the HB 3 (from the 86th legislative session) “cleanup bill” and is identical to Sen. Larry Taylor’s SB 1536, which has not been set for a committee hearing at this time. Both bills relate to the school finance system.
HB 2120 Bell, Keith
Would require school boards, unless otherwise provided by law or policy, to allow for an initial administrative hearing regarding a complaint and an opportunity to appeal the administrative decision following the initial hearing. The bill also requires districts to provide a resolution of a complaint no later than 120 calendar days after the filing of the complaint.
HB 2261 Wu
Would add public education facilities to the list of improvement projects and services that a municipal management district may provide.
HB 2287 Thompson, Senfronia | et al.
Would establish a database of mental health services and trainings provided by school districts and charter schools for use by the Collaborative Task Force on Public School Mental Health Services. The bill provides guidelines for the type of information that may be collected and the groups with which the task force may work. The bill requires the task force to produce a report ever other year on the types of services provided to students and the number of students who received each type of service.
HB 2519 Darby
Would change the resignation deadline for teacher contracts, continuing contract, and term contracts to be the 30th day before the start of instruction rather than the 45th day. SBEC is asked to consider continuing education before suspending or revoking a certification. SBEC is prohibited from revoking a certificate if a teacher does not file their resignation in a timely manner if the teacher has no disciplinary history with SBEC or demonstrates reasonable circumstances around the tardiness of the written resignation. The bill also establishes that, through attrition, SBEC must include two appointed individuals from school districts with an ADA less than 999. The bill is identical to Sen. Judith Zaffirini’s SB 1238 that has been introduced and referred to the Senate Education Committee.
HB 2557 Rogers | et al.
Would allow a board of trustees or charter board to approve a program under which retired law enforcement officer or honorably retired military veterans may serve as volunteer security personnel at a school and carry a handgun in fulfillment of that role.
HB 2954 Thompson, Senfronia | et al.
Would require TEA to create a suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention program for optional implementation at an elementary campus of a school district that has experienced a suicide among its students or has reasonable concern regarding the risk of suicide among its students.
Use TASA’s Bill Tracker to learn more about education-related bills filed in the 87th session.
