The following bills related to K-12 education have been passed by the 88th Texas Legislature and sent to and/or signed by the governor. For bills sent to the governor within 10 days of final adjournment, which is May 29, 2023, the governor has until 20 days after final adjournment to sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without a signature. If the governor neither vetoes nor signs the bill within the allotted time, the bill becomes law.
Please note that some bills were changed in conference committee in the final days of the session, so the following brief summaries were prepared with the information available. Look for final bill language/provisions to be outlined in TASA’s upcoming final bill report, which the Governmental Relations staff produces following each legislative session. (The 2023 final bill report will be published in summer 2023.)
Note: This list is updated daily.
House Bills
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 63 (Swanson/Sparks) adds to the information an individual is required to include when making a report of abuse or neglect to identify: the facts that caused the individual to believe a child had been abused or neglected and the source of the information; the individual’s name and telephone number; and the individual’s home address or, if the individual is a mandatory reporter, the individual’s business address and profession.
- Sent to the governor May 16: HB 567 (Bowers/Miles) prohibits any student dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district or public institution of higher education, including a student dress or grooming policy for any extracurricular activity, from discriminating against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.
- Sent to the governor May 25: HB 699 (Frank/Paxton) requires the UIL to apply the same student enrollment calculation formula to all schools whether or not the school allowed a non-enrolled student to participate in the league activity when assigning league classification to a public school.
- Sent to the governor May 25: HB 1002 (Price/Perry) provides for the inclusion of a licensed chiropractor or physical therapist on a concussion oversight team and expands the list of persons with authority to remove a student from practice or competition following a concussion.
- Sent to the governor May 18: HB 1212 (Jetton/Kolkhorst) prohibits a school district from requiring a note from a clergy member or other religious leader to excuse a student absence related to the observance of a religious holy day. The school district would be required to accept a note from the student’s parent or person standing in parental relation.
- Sent to the governor May 19: HB 1225 (Metcalf/Zaffirini) allows a school district to administer certain required assessment instruments in paper format to any student whose parent, guardian, or teacher in the applicable area requested it by December 1.
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 1263 (Thompson/Miles) prohibits a local authority from adopting or enforcing a measure to prohibit or preclude the designation of a crosswalk or school crossing zone at a high school located in a municipality with a population of two million or more.
- Sent to the governor May 18: HB 1297 (Dutton/Birdwell) requires rules developed by the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission relating to screening for special senses and communication disorders to allow an individual who attends a public or private school to be screened using an electronic eye chart as a substitute for a printed eye chart to assess visual acuity.
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 1416 (Bell/Paxton) amends Education Code provisions regarding accelerated and supplemental instruction for struggling students by
reducing the required minimum instruction hours, allowing a parental opt-out for such instruction, and repealing certain sections of statute, among other provisions. - Sent to the governor May 22: HB 1615 (Button/Birdwell) establishes a pre-K partnership program that would partner certain eligible child-care providers with local school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide required pre-K classes. The bill also establishes a scholarship program for current and prospective child care workers.
- Sent to the governor May 19: HB 1789 (Buckley/Flores) allows school district boards of trustees to exempt the appointment or employment of public school bus drivers from nepotism prohibitions if the board approved the appointment or employment.
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 1825 (Turner/Birdwell) relates to the consumption, possession, and sale of alcoholic beverages at certain performing arts facilities owned by certain school districts. The law extends the authority granted under Education Code sec. 11.179(a) to a county with a performing arts facility within two miles of two or more stadiums with a capacity of at least 40,000 people.
- Sent to the governor May 19: HB 1959 (Noble/King) requires the board of trustees of a public school district or the board’s designee, on request of a peace officer who is a parent of or a person standing in parental relation to a student, to transfer the student to another district campus or to another district under an agreement prescribed by statutory provisions governing the transfer of students between districts or counties.
- Sent to the governor May 22: HB 2012 (Oliverson/Hughes) specifies that a classroom teacher at a public elementary or secondary school, or a teacher or professor at an institution of higher education, cannot be prohibited from displaying in a classroom a poster or framed copy of the national motto that meets established requirements.
- Sent to the governor May 18: HB 2209 (Lozano/HInojosa) requires the commissioner of education to establish and administer the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) program to incentivize and support rural college and career pathway partnerships that would be multi-district, cross-sector, and that would expand opportunities for underserved students to succeed in school and life while promoting economic development in rural areas.
- Sent to the governor May 22: HB 2892 (Buckley/Middleton) would require a school district to transfer a child of a military service member to another campus within the district or to another district upon the service member’s request and to the campus requested.
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 2929 (Lozano/West) amends the Education Code so that a classroom teacher’s continuing education requirements could not require that more than 25% of the training required every five years include instruction on: collecting and analyzing information that will improve effectiveness in the classroom; recognizing early warning indicators that a student could be at risk of dropping out of school; digital learning, digital teaching, and integrating technology in the classroom; educating diverse student populations; and understanding appropriate relationships, boundaries, and communications between educators and students.
- Sent to the governor May 22: HB 3803 (Cunningham/Paxton) would allow parents and guardians to have their children repeat a grade up to grade 8 instead of grade 3. The parent or guardian of a high school student could elect for the student to repeat any course from the previous school year, unless the school district or charter school determined the student had met all the requirements for graduation.
- Sent to the governor May 24: HB 3928 (Toth/Parker) requires the board of trustees of each school district to adopt a grievance procedure under which the board would be required to abide by a parent’s due process rights under IDEA and address each complaint that the board received concerning: a violation of a right related to the screening and intervention services for dyslexia or a related disorder; or the school district’s implementation of the Texas Dyslexia Handbook, as published by TEA, and its subsequent amendments. The bill includes a number of other related provisions. Read the final bill.
- Sent to the governor May 22: HB 4210 (Lujan/Campbell) amends the Education Code to revise statutory provisions relating to the governance of Randolph Field ISD.
Senate Bills
- Signed by governor and effective immediately: SB 68 (Zaffirini/Murr) permits a school district to excuse a student who is a junior or senior in high school from school for a “career investigation day” that involves visiting a professional at their workplace for the purpose of determining the student’s interest in pursuing a career in the professional’s field.
- Signed by governor and effective immediately: SB 294 (Johnson/Klick) allows school personnel and school volunteers who are authorized and trained to administer medication for respiratory distress. The bill also requires school districts and schools that adopt a respiratory distress policy to obtain written consent from a parent or guardian upon enrollment for returning and transfer students. It clarifies that the provision regarding written consent does not preclude a school personnel member or school volunteer from administering medication in good faith regardless of whether the student’s parent or guardian has provided written consent. It also clarifies that a school employee may not be subject to any penalty or disciplinary action for refusing to participate in the school district or school campus respiratory distress policy.
- Sent to the governor May 23: SB 361 (Eckhardt/Shine) allows appraisal districts to hire teachers to serve on an appraisal review board.
- Sent to the governor May 19: SB 798 (Middleton/Buckley) states that the qualifications for certification as a school counselor may not include a requirement that a candidate for certification have experience as a classroom teacher.
- Signed by governor and effective immediately: SB 838 (Creighton/Thierry) requires school districts and charters to provide panic alert devices in all classrooms.
- Signed by governor and effective immediately: SB 1008 (Flores/Buckley) extends the deadline by which a person whose parent or guardian is an active-duty member of the U.S. armed forces and transferred to a military installation in or adjacent to a public school district’s attendance zone must provide proof of residence for purposes of public school admission to the district from the 10th day after the arrival date specified in the military transfer order to the 90th day after that arrival date.
- Sent to the governor May 22: SB 1471 (Bettencourt/Noble) requires TEA to subscribe to the criminal history clearinghouse and authorizes the agency to obtain from any law enforcement or criminal justice agency all criminal history record information and all records contained in any closed criminal investigation file that relate to a specific applicant for employment or current or former employee of certain entities, including a private school that is accredited by an accrediting agency that is a member of the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission.
- Sent to the governor May 16: SB 1506 (Hughes/Clardy) requires TEA to post a form on the agency’s website that can be used by parents for submitting a seizure management and treatment plan to districts and specifies what information should be collected on the form.
- Sent to the governor May 17: SB 2032 (Creighton) would allow entities to create adult charter schools like the Goodwill Excel Center pilot. It sets a limit of 10 charter schools that can be created (in addition to those existing) to serve this purpose.
- Filed without governor’s signature and effective September 1, 2023: SB 2069 (Bettencourt/Shaefer) reduces requirements on public schools by mandating that they post signs regarding human trafficking penalties only in conspicuous places likely to be viewed by all employees and visitors. The bill also removes private schools from those required to display these signs.
- Sent to the governor May 16: SB 2124 (Creighton/Howard) requires school districts to establish an opt-out policy to enroll students who are performing in the top two quintiles (40%) on the fifth grade state standardized assessment or a local measure that includes class score and/or demonstrated proficiency in classwork, into accelerated math in sixth grade to improve chances of gaining access to Algebra I in eighth grade.
- Sent to the governor May 22: SB 2139 (Parker/Longoria) establishes the Opportunity High School Diploma Program to provide an alternative means by which adult students enrolled in a workforce education program at a public junior college could earn a high school diploma.
- Sent to the governor May 16: SB 2294 (Creighton/Kuempel) expands the types of institutions of higher education eligible to participate in the Texas First Early High School Completion Program and in the Texas First Scholarship Program from only an institution of higher education designated as a research university or emerging research university under the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s accountability system to any public institution of higher education. The bill changes the authorization for a public school district or open-enrollment charter school to issue a high school diploma to a student under the Texas First Early High School Completion Program if the student meets the prescribed standards to a requirement for a district or charter school to allow a student to graduate and receive a high school diploma under the program if the student meets the standards.
- Sent to the governor May 25: SB 2304 (Lamantia/Hernandez) equires districts and charter schools to provide information regarding the Texas Driving with Disability Program to certain public school students and parents and in the curriculum of driver education courses and driving safety courses.
Check back for more bills to be added to this list.
