The House Public Education Committee met a second time after the full House adjourned Tuesday, May 16, to vote out the following bills (Senate bills have already been passed by that chamber):
- SB 11 (Nichols/Ken King) is a school safety bill that combines Sen. Nicheols’ SB 11 as it arrived from the Senate, with Rep. Burrows’ HB 3 and Rep. Ken King’s HB 13, which were passed by the House. The committee substitute language was not available, but King explained during the committee meeting that the bill does not include a requirement for each campus to have armed security. The substitute may be similar to HB 3, as passed by the Senate Education Committee.
- SB 9 (Creighton) requires districts, by the beginning of the school year, to provide teachers, librarians, and counselors with duty calendars that specify the days employees are expected to work. The bill: prohibits sanctions against teachers who leave before the end dates of their contracts in certain circumstances; requires TEA to train and assist schools on effective recruitment and retention strategies; creates a Texas Teacher Residency Partnership Program; makes teachers’ children eligible for free public pre-K; and provides grants to retire/rehire teachers to offset TRS costs.
- SB 163 (Campbell) makes permanent the district requirement to obtain written notice from a parent/guardian before providing human sexuality instruction (opt-in).
- SB 1087 (Schwertner) allows students to earn more than one subsidy for completing an industry certification exam as part of a school CTE program and allows teachers to receive a subsidy for any CTE industry certification rather than just a cybersecurity certification.
- SB 1131 (Blanco) allows the El Paso ISD Board of Trustees to move its board elections from May to the November uniform election date.
- SB 1515 (Phil King) requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in each classroom.
- SB 1630 (Bettencourt) addresses student attendance, including provisions requiring schools to inform parents on the importance of regular attendance; requiring schools to provide appropriate supports to students who fail to regularly attend school; allowing parents to choose to receive notifications of student absences; allowing parents, students, and school staff to meet to discuss why a student is missing school; and requiring schools to create guidelines to identify students in need of additional support.
- SB 1647 (Parker) allows school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to use public or private community-based dropout recovery education programs to provide an alternative for students who are deemed by administrators, counselors, or teachers as being at-risk of dropping out.
- SB 1720 (Kolkhorst) allows school employees who report a potential threat to the school’s threat assessment team to keep their identity confidential.
- SB 1861 (Bettencourt) seeks to put into statute recommendations from the Texas Commission on Virtual Education. The commissioner would indefinitely authorize school districts and charters wishing to operate full-time virtual campuses or full-time hybrid campuses. The commissioner would be required to revoke virtual campuses that receive a D or F for two out of three years or perform unacceptably according to the commissioner’s approved performance evaluation. The commissioner would also be required to evaluate the performance of a private or third-party acting as a whole campus virtual instruction provider for a district or charter. Students could not be forced to take virtual courses and must be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities as if they were taking courses in person. Teachers could not be coerced into providing virtual instruction (VI) or be required to teach virtual and in-person courses during the same class period. Teachers must take professional development in VI and have sufficient previous experience. A school may charge tuition and fees to a student who is not eligible to enroll in public school or who “is not enrolled in a course not offered” at the school.
- SB 2482 (Menendez) requires the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission, with the assistance of TEA, to survey districts across the state regarding the implementation of Holocaust Remembrance Week in schools.
- CSSB 2497 (Middleton) grants a weighted allotment of 0.15 for emergent bilingual students and 0.05 for other students enrolled in alternative language educational method dual language immersion/one-way or two-way programs. The bill also requires schools to report data on their alternative language educational programs to TEA via their PEIMS reports. The bill limits the amount that may be granted under this program to $10 million per biennium.
- SCR 9 (Springer) designates the first full week in April as Gifted and Talented Students Week for a 10-year period ending in 2033.
- HCR 34 (Holland) designates February 10 as Crossing Guard Appreciation Day for a 10-year period ending in 2033.
- HCR 110 (Burns) designates October 5 as Texas Teachers’ Day for a 10-year period ending in 2033.
