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Education Committees to Hear Accountability, Detachment Bills | April 29, 2025

Education Committees to Hear Accountability, Detachment Bills | April 29, 2025

Both the Texas House Public Education Committee and the Senate Education K-16 Committee are set to meet Tuesday, April 29, to hear a number of education-related bills that could have an impact on Keller ISD and all public school districts. 

Among the bills scheduled for hearing by House Public Ed. is a House Bill 4, which provide significant authority to the State Education Commissioner to make changes to the public school accountability system, including prohibiting school districts from suing the state regarding the accountability system. Other key aspects of the bill include: 

  • Removing a school board's discretion in using the Commissioner's improvement and evaluation tool if the district is subject to Commissioner action; 
  • Moving authority to create and implement the state assessment system from the State Board of Education (SBOE) to the Texas Education Agency (TEA): 
  • Requiring TEA to redesign the assessment system by incorporating recommendations from the formative assessment pilot program, including reducing test length, beginning with the spring 2026 test administration; 
  • Including classroom teachers in the process of scoring non-multiple choice questions; 
  • Allowing the Commissioner to exclude performance indicators if he determines they are not valid or reliable; 
  • Adjusting how military readiness is determined; 
  • Making changes to how indicators are evaluated and adjusted, including requiring the Commissioner to increase rigor and change certain indicators every fifth year; 
  • Requiring TEA to keep an industry certification list with several provisions for updating and maintaining it; 
  • Prohibiting the Commissioner from assigning all schools across the state a rating of “Not Rated;" 
  • Creating a local accountability grant program to help at least one district in each education service center region develop a local accountability program; 
  • Requiring the Commissioner to appoint a conservator to a district that takes legal action against the state, TEA, or an officer of the state; 
  • Requiring the Commissioner to continue with any sanctions or interventions even if ratings are enjoined; 
  • Changing how districts and charters could pay attorneys in actions against TEA, SBOE or State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC); 
  • Removing the provision requiring the Commissioner to provide an accountability manual outlining accountability performance measures, methods, and procedures to be used in evaluation performance for each school year; 
  • Requiring the Commissioner to issue ratings each year.

It is believed that a committee substitute for this bill will be introduced, changing many of these provisions, but it was not yet made publicly available. 

HB 5089 is also on the agenda for Tuesday. It would address the creation of a school district by detachment of property. The bill aims to change the process for creating a school district by detachment by requiring a petition to do so be initiated by at least 20% of the registered voters in the existing district. It would require that that petition be submitted to the SBOE instead of a county commissioner's court and require an election be held on the issue, if the petition is deemed valid. Responsibility for equitably distributing property and debt would fall to the SBOE if a new district is created by detachment. 

Other bills on the agenda for the House Public Ed. Committee include: 

  • HB 54, which would require student codes of conduct to prohibit non-human behavior by a student and makes allowing or encouraging, in an educational setting, a child to develop a dependence on or a belief that non-human behaviors are societally acceptable abuse;
  • HB 775, which would require districts to allow homeschool students to participate in UIL activities unless the board of trustees takes a record vote and declines to grant non-enrolled students access; 
  • HB 850, which addresses defibrillators in schools. The bill would:
    • Require school districts to have the number of defibrillators necessary for a defibrillator to be accessible from any location on campus so that care may be provided within three minutes of being notified of a possible medical emergency; 
    • Require school principals to consult guidelines from the American Heart Association to determine placement of the defibrillators; 
    • Require school districts and private schools to develop and implement a cardiac emergency response plan including the establishment of a cardiac emergency response team, procedures for activating the team, the dissemination of the plan throughout each campus, ongoing training, annual drills, and annual review and revision of the plan as needed; creates a grant program to assist districts with implementing a cardiac emergency response plan; 
  • HB 1122, which would decreases the required student-to-counselor ratio from 500-to-1 to 300-to-1 over the next 10 years and apply the student-to-counselor ratio to all campus levels; 
  • HB 1249, would allow school districts to use a writing portfolio assessment to assess writing performance for students instead of the portion of the reading, English I, or English II STAAR that is not multiple choice; a writing portfolio assessment must be developed in consultation with an institute of higher education and be submitted to TEA for approval.
  • HB 1405, which is related to bullying and would: 
    • Add targeting a victim on the basis of religion, disability, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, or association with a person or group with one or more of those characteristics to the definition of bullying; 
    • Add a requirement that a district employee who witnesses or receives information about possible bullying to report it to the appropriate administrator; 
    • Require the policy related to bullying to set out the supportive measures provided by the district to those involved; 
    • Set out specific procedures for bullying investigations, including notice requirements and the opportunity for each impacted student and students' parent or guardian to review and comment on the investigative report before it is finalized; 
    • Require school districts to provide non-punitive or disciplinary supportive measure to students impacted by bullying; 
    • Require reporting to the TEA of bullying incidents to specify the number of incidents that are based on religion, disability, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, or sex; 
  • HB 2336, which would require employment policies to allow employees the right to present grievances in person to the Board; 
  • HB 2757, which would allow school districts to adopt policies to allow a parent or guardian who is an active-duty member of a foreign military force stationed in the state to establish age eligibility for enrollment in a public school by demonstrating that the child will turn the required age during the school year in which the child is seeking admission; 
  • HB 3372, which would prohibit school district administrators from performing personal services or receiving financial benefit for performing personal services for any business entity that conducts or solicits business with the school district, an education business that provides services regarding curriculum or administration of any school district, or with another school district; 
  • HB 3622, which would increase ADA funding for optional flexible school day programs and dropout prevention programs; 
  • HB 4442, which would require school districts to offer an elective course on mindfulness to secondary students; 
  • HB 4687, which would make members of the governing body of a charter school immune from liability to the same extent as a school district trustee and makes operators of adult high school charter programs immune to liability for suit to the same extent school districts are; 
  • HB 4893, which would create a "Breakthrough Program" to assist students who are the first in their families to pursue and attain a postsecondary certificate or diploma or who are eligible for free and reduced lunch and requires the Commissioner to take certain actions to support the program; 
  • HB 5515, which would limits freight and shipping costs charged by a provider of instructional materials to the actual cost of freight or shipping incurred by the provider; 
  • HB 5606, which would create a statewide sick leave bank using accrued sick leave days of employees upon their retirement; 
  • SB 10, which would require public schools to display a copy of the ten commandments in every classroom, if the posters, or funds for the purchase of posters, are donated to the school and allows, but does not require, public schools to purchase posters to display the ten commandments with district funds; and 
  • SB 24, which would require the inclusion of an understanding of communist regimes and ideologies within the social studies curriculum for 4-12 and outlines specific standards required to be included.

The hearing beings at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Click here to view live video of the House Public Ed. hearing. Texas residents who want to electronically submit comments related to agenda items without testifying in person can do so by clicking here anytime until the hearing is adjourned. 

The Senate Education K-16 Committee will meet at 11 a.m., or upon adjournment of the Senate, and is set to hear testimony on the following bills: 

  • SB 111, which would prohibits a school district from spending more than $10,000 in legal fees in a special education legal proceeding; if the district nears $8,000 in fees, the superintendent shall make a report to the board outlined in the bill; and 
  • SB 205, which would require the SBOE to adopt rules requiring seventh- and eighth-grade students to receive instruction on fetal development; 
  • SB 582, which would requires certain preliminary reports of certain special investigations conducted by TEA to be subject to the Public Information Act; 
  • SB 625, which would require high school students to take at least one half-credit course in personal financial literacy and economics; students would also be able to take a full-credit economics course, world geography course, or world history course to fulfill their social studies requirements; 
  • SB 1884, which would allow the SBOE Chair to employ personnel to assist the board in performing its duties; 
  • SB 1903, which would add two new members to the board of directors of the Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation to be selected by the Speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor; 
  • SB 2600, which would prohibit school districts from charging a fee to transport students who live within two miles of a campus; 
  • SB 2617, which would require school boards and charter boards to adopt policies requiring the use of the terms Anno Domini (AD) and Before Christ (BC) when expressing dates during student instruction; districts would not be allowed to purchase or select curricula that expresses dates in any other manner; 
  • SB 2751, which would adjust how residential and day placement facilities are inspected by TEA; 
  • SB 3061, which was filed on Monday, April 28, and relates to the eligibility of children of certain elected officials for an education savings account program. There was no language posted, but a similar provision in last session’s ESA bill prohibited children of legislators from taking part in an ESA program. 

Click here to watch the livestream of the Senate Education K-16 Committee's Tuesday hearing.