The Senate Education Committee met Thursday, April 27, to hear testimony on these bills. The committee voted the following bills related to K-12 out of committee. They will now go to the full Senate for consideration:
- CSSB 418 (Paxton), heard in committee April 19, permits students to transfer to any school district with capacity and prohibits districts from charging them tuition.
- CSSB 595 (Kolkhorst), heard in committee April 19, requires parental consent for psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted by a school district employee in various forms.
- CSSB 668 (West), heard in committee April 19, requires school districts to make available certain school safety training courses to employees of child-care facilities and certain organizations providing out-of-school-time care.
- CSSB 1471 (Bettencourt), heard in committee April 19, adds private schools to the list of schools that must do background checks on employees, etc.
- SB 1506 (Hughes), heard in committee April 19, directs TEA to create a standardized form for the management of treatment of students with epilepsy or medical conditions that result in seizures.
- CSSB 1557 (Parker), heard in committee April 19, would allow the parent of a student who was victimized by a public school employee to transfer the student to another public school campus (within or outside district, charter school) or receive funding for the student to attend private school.
- CSSB 1567 (Campbell), heard in committee April 19, requires districts to keep a minimum amount of paper instructional materials in the classrooms and the library.
- CSSB 2304 (LaMantia), heard in committee April 19, requires 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.
- SB 2403 (Springer), heard in committee April 19, requires districts to report certain gifted and talented program data in PEIMS.
- CSSB 2497 (Middleton), heard in committee April 12, would allow districts to use an alternative language method to satisfy bilingual education allotment requirements. A new committee substitute was adopted before the bill was voted out. The sub lowers the fiscal note on the bill by limiting the overall amount of the allotment to $10 million.
- CSSB 2428 (Creighton), heard in committee April 19, ensures that priority for DAEP placement is given to students who commit violent offenses over students caught possessing e-cigarettes.
