The Senate Education Committee held a formal meeting Tuesday, May 17, and voted out the following bills related to K-12:
- HB 3 (Burrows/Nichols) is the school safety bill with negotiated language from Rep. Burrows’ HB 3, Rep. Ken King’s HB 13, and Sen. Nichols’ SB 11. The substitute language does not include armed security for each campus and requires school districts to use bond proceeds to achieve compliance with safety and security requirements when a district has been notified that they are non-compliant by TEA before bond proceeds can be used for any other authorized purpose. The bill also allows TEA to appoint a conservator to a school that is not compliant with established security standards, but only to correct safety and security failures that have been identified. The bill also includes:
- an increase of the school safety allotment from $9.72 to $10 per student in ADA
- $15,000 per-campus school safety allotment
- school safety review teams
- development of capacity within ESCs to serve as supports for districts on school safety
- creation of an office of school safety and security at TEA
- consequences for noncompliance with school safety regulations
- annual intruder detection audits
- in-depth review by TEA of safety procedures
- TEA-approved registry process for school safety vendors
- school safety meetings of law enforcement within each county
- HB 1707 (Klick/Hughes) requires political subdivisions to consider charter schools as school districts for purposes of zoning, permitting, utility services, etc. The Senate Committee substitute was not available but is suspected to not include House floor amendments that increased transparency and notification around charter school campus openings.
- HB 2920 (Paul/Bettencourt) requires TEA to make certain information available to public and private school students regarding postsecondary education and career opportunities.
