The Senate Education Committee K-16 will meet at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, March 25, to hear invited and public testimony in room E1.028 of the capitol extension. Public testimony will be limited to two minutes.
SB 27 Creighton –
- School districts would be required to adopt and provide a duty calendar. The calendar must be adopted not later than the 15th day before the first instructional day for teachers, counselors, and librarians that specifies the days each employee is expected to work for the school year, including the days on which the employee is expected to perform supplemental duties for more than 30 minutes outside of the instructional day. It would not include days that may be required to spend time on an unanticipated duty outside the instructional day to comply with state or federal law.
- Supplemental duty means a duty other than a duty assigned under an employee’s contract that is generally expected to be performed during an instructional day and that may be governed by an agreement outside of the contract between the employee and the district.
- Prohibits SBEC from sanctioning a teacher who resigns after the 45th day if the resignation was due to: (a) serious illness or health conditions of the teacher or close relative; (b) the teacher has to relocate because of their spouse or partner who resides with the teacher changes employers; (c) a significant change in the needs of the teacher’s family that requires the teacher to relocate or forgo employment during the teacher’s contract; or (d) the teacher’s reasonable belief they had written permission from administration to resign.
- Requires TEA to establish and administer a grant program to reimburse districts and charters who hire retirees that retired prior to September 1, 2024. Allows the commissioner to proportionally reduce the amount of money awarded to school districts and charter schools if there’s not enough money to pay all that apply. Eliminates the provision in statute that requires the employer to bear the surcharge costs.
- TEA must develop training and provide technical assistance to districts and charters regarding: (1) strategic compensation, staffing, and scheduling efforts to improve professional growth, teacher leadership opportunities, and staff retention; (2) programs to encourage high school student or others in the community served by the district to become teachers; and (3) programs or strategies that school leaders can use to establish clear and attainable behavior expectations while also supporting students.
- Requires TEA to collect data from districts and charters to address teacher retention and recruitment, including the classifications, grade levels, subject areas, duration, and other relevant information regarding vacant teaching positions thru PEIMS or another reporting mechanism determined by TEA.
- No longer requires a teacher to provide documentation of a student’s repeated interference of the teacher’s ability to communicate effectively with the student or other classmates. Allows a teacher to remove a student who demonstrates behavior that is unruly, disruptive, or abusive to toward the teacher, another adult, or another student, or engages in conduct that constitutes bullying as defined in statute.
SB 226 West – Provides that the Parent Child Safety Placement is sufficient proof a child’s residency for enrollment purposes.
SB 326 King – Requires schools to consider the definition of antisemitism when determining whether a student’s code of conduct violation was motivated by antisemitism.
SB 570 Bettencourt – Requires each school district to establish and implement an attendance policy to inform parents and students at the beginning of the school year about the importance of attending school. The attendance policy must inform parents and students about the benefits and possible detriments of not attending school, including any criminal repercussions. Schools must adopt a notification system to notify parents whenever there is an excused or unexcused absence via text, email, or first-class mail. If parent fails to attend the meeting, a school attendance officer may make a home visit or contact the parent to investigate the student’s behavior and living conditions to report back to the appropriate staff member at the school. Requires a meeting between a parent of a student enrolled in the district or school with a school counselor, principal, or appropriate administrator at the school when a student becomes at risk of being truant.
SB 605 West – Prohibits the commissioner from approving a charter expansion amendment if a charter holder or a campus under a charter holder is subject to a Chapter 39A action by the commissioner.
SB 870 Birdwell – Allows a school marshal to open carry a handgun (no longer must be concealed) if in uniform that identifies them as a school marshal
SB 991 Bettencourt – Adds chronically absent and truant students to those who are at risk of dropping out for purposes of receiving advanced instruction. Requires reporting of truant and chronically absent students at the campus level as well as the number of students who receive services under the at risk of dropping out statute.
SB 1871 Perry, Creighton, Sparks –
- Requires a single person be designated as the campus behavior coordinator, who may be the principal or another administrator. This coordinator is responsible for implementing discipline management policies. The coordinator must monitor disciplinary referrals and reporting to the campus’s threat assessment and safe school team.
- Allows a teacher to remove a student from class based on a single incident of behavior (interferes with teaching, bullying, disruptive, unruly behavior, etc.) and removes the documentation requirement.
- Prohibits a principal from returning a student to a teacher’s class without the teacher’s written consent unless the Placement Review Committee (PRC) determines that such placement is the best or only alternative available and, not later than the third-class day after the day on which the student was removed from class, a conference in which the teacher has been provided an opportunity to participate has been held. Prohibits the principal from returning a student to that teacher’s class, regardless of the teacher’s consent, until a return to class plan has been prepared for that student. The principal can only designate an employee of the school whose primary duties do not include classroom instruction to create a return to class plan. Allows a student to appeal the removal to the PRC or threat assessment team.
- Requires mandatory DAEP placement of a student for disorderly conduct against as school employee or volunteer. Adds burglary and kidnapping to mandatory expulsion regardless of whether on or off school property. Mandatory expulsion is also required if a student exhibits, uses, or threatens to exhibit or use a firearm or weapon regardless of whether it’s on or off school property.
- Places no time limits on number of days a student may be placed in school suspension (ISS). Out of school suspensions (OSS) can’t exceed three days. Removes Chapter 37 from DOI exemption. Maintains language requiring automatic DAEP placement vaping offenses.
- Prohibits TEA from withholding any state funding or imposing a penalty on a school district based on the number of students in the district that have been removed from a classroom, placed into ISS or OSS, placed in a disciplinary alternative education program or a juvenile justice alternative education program, or expelled.
- Creates the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine Program (consortium). If the consortium makes available mental health services to a school district, the district is required to offer to each student access to those mental health services. Prohibits school districts from providing those services to students under 18 without written consent.
SB 1872 Perry – Applies to incidents off campus – no longer requires it to be on campus for mandated expulsion. Adds bodily injury of an employee or volunteer to mandated expulsion list.
SB 1873 Perry – Clarifies out of school suspension cannot exceed 3 days. Provides that ISS has no limits on the number of days for placement. Authorizes suspension of a student who engages in conduct identified in the student code of conduct for which a student may be subject to ISS or OSS.
SB 1874 Perry – Prohibits a professional employee of a school district from being subject to disciplinary proceedings for the reporting of a violation of Chapter 37 to another professional employee of a school district, the Texas Education Agency, or a law enforcement agency, or an action taken in compliance with Chapter 37. Prohibits an employee from being fired, non-renewed, discharged, or suspended for disciplining students. Applies to disciplinary proceedings occurring on, or after the effective date of unresolved matters.
SB 1924 Creighton – Allows schools to issue citations (Class C misdemeanor) for school offenses. Requires criminal referral for harm or imminent harm to a teacher. Graduated sanctions are not allowed.
SB 1925 Creighton – Authorizes, rather than requires, a school district to adopt truancy prevention measures. No longer requires a school district to offer additional counseling to a student. Prohibits referring a student to truancy court if the school determines that the student’s truancy is the result of homelessness. Authorizes rather than requires schools to take certain steps in initiating truancy prevention measures when a student misses a certain number of days within a four-week period. Authorizes, rather than requires, a school district to employ a truancy prevention facilitator or juvenile case manager to implement truancy prevention measures. Removes the option of a “jury trial” from all truancy court proceedings. Prohibits filing a petition after the 60th, rather than the 45th day, after the date of the last absence giving rise to the act of truant conduct.
To listen to a live broadcast of the hearing, https://senate.texas.gov/av-live.php
To view the full posting, https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/schedules/html/C5322025032508001.HTM
