House Public Ed. Advances Multitude of K-12 Bills | April 23, 2025

The Texas House Public Education Meeting met Tuesday, April 22, and passed several bills, making them available to be considered by the House. 

While the committee substitute versions of the bills were not yet made available to the public, below is a synopsis of key bills that were advanced by the committee: 

SB 314, which would prohibit certain food additives – such as brominated vegetable oil, red dye 3, and potassium bromate – from being used in food under the school breakfast and school lunch programs;

HB 123, which would enact a number measures designed to support kindergarten readiness and early literacy and numeracy skills for public school students, including: 

• Increasing the weight for the Early Education Allotment for K-3 students from 0.1 to 0.11 and requiring districts to use that allotment to pay a stipend (as determined by the Commissioner of Education) to K-3 classroom teachers who attend a reading academy outside contracted hours; 
• Also providing that stipend to early education teachers who attend a math academy; 
• Requiring the Commissioner to establish new reading intervention and math intervention academies and creating a new Early Literacy Intervention Allotment;
• Requiring a 12-month intervention for K-3 students whose results on two consecutive K-3 early literacy instruments indicate the student is at risk of not achieving satisfactory performance; and
• Requiring that all K-8 math teachers and all principals, assistant principals, math coaches, and math interventionists attend a math academy by 2031; 

HB 367, which would require the parent of a student seeking an excused absence for a life-threatening illness to have a physician fill out a specific form adopted by the district that includes a statement that the illness is serious or life-threatening; 

HB 549, which would require districts to ensure the availability of at least one airway clearance device on each campus, specifically designed to address foreign-body airway obstructions, only if the campus receives donations or funds specifically allocated or donated for this purpose; 

HB 824, which would require an update to civics TEKS in government to include the role of government officials, the voting process and state election laws, eligibility requirements to run for elected office, Robert’s Rules of Order, and the elected officials who represent the student at each level of government; 

HB 983, which would make personal information of educators maintained by TEA confidential and excepted from public information; 

HB 1178, which would provide a temporary, one-year certificate for a teacher who is certified in another state and has a bachelor's degree, and repeal current law requiring the State Board of Educator Certification to issue a certificate to educators certified in other states; 

HB 1290, which would, like SB 314, prohibit certain food additives – such as brominated vegetable oil, red dye 3, and potassium bromate – from being used in food school districts' free or reduced-price meals;

HB 1368, which would require districts with more than 10,000 students to notify parents if the school lacks a full-time nurse, school counselor, or librarian for more than 30 consecutive instructional days within the same school year; 

HB 1411, which would allow non-exempt employees who are paid hourly to use personal leave to be compensated for unpaid school holidays; 

HB 1441, which would require model training for school resource officers and school district police to include training in the effects of mental health conditions – including grief and trauma – on student behavior; 

HB 1579, which would require TEA to establish and determine minimum requirements for a state seal of bilingualism and bi-literacy to recognize graduates who attain a high level of proficiency in comprehending, speaking, reading, and writing in both English and a language other than english, and require districts to include the seal on the diploma and with the transcript of each student who earned the seal; 

HB 1581, which would require districts to report information related to bilingual education,  as determined by TEA rule, and require TEA to develop and make available training materials for school administrators related to bilingual education programs, adopt rules providing for robust monitoring of bilingual education, and to engage directly with districts offering bilingual education to improve outcomes for emergent bilingual students; 

HB 1773, which would allow school districts to appoint a non-voting student trustee; 

HB 1813, which would require individuals serving as non-attorney representatives to take a special education law course prior to serving as a non-attorney representative in a special education due process hearing; 

HB 2107, which would allow local school boards to make an annual training requirement for educators only required every other year; 

HB 2243, which would establish the Texas Commission on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention, aiming to develop recommendations to enhance teacher job satisfaction and retention; 

HB 2310, which would require TEA, the Health and Human Services Commission, and the Texas Workforce Commission to develop and implement a strategic plan to improve early learning and educational opportunities for young children with disabilities or developmental delays and outlines specific requirements; 

HB 2598, which would change the name of "licensed specialist in school psychology" to "school psychologist"; 

HB 2849, which would require a local board of trustees to adopt a recess policy based on the model recess policies developed by the Department of State Health Services School Health Advisory Committee that specifies the number of minutes of weekly unstructured playtime and whether a student’s recess time may be withheld as a form of student discipline; 

HB 2911, which would allow districts that opted out of TRS health insurance between September 1, 2021, and September 1, 2023, to rejoin TRS without waiting the typical five-year period, and create an allotment for school districts to provide health insurance outside of TRS; 

HB 2967; which would require TEA to publicly report the number of students, disaggregated by campus, grade level, and demographic factors, found to have vision disorders through regular vision screening in schools, and provide an allotment to schools of $75 for each economically disadvantaged student who is identified as having a vision disorder to pay for eye exams, corrective lenses, and other vision care; 

HB 3099, which would provide additional funding for adult high school charter programs; 

HB 3546, which would allow districts to change the date on which they hold the general election for trustees to November; 

HB 3627, which would allow the State Board of Education chair to employe personnel to assist the board in performing its duties; 

HB 3629, which would prohibit a person from serving as a trustee if they’re required to register as a sex offender; 

HB 3672, which would create a grant program for organizations to provide extracurricular education programs for students occurring outside of regular school hours; 

HB 3797, which would changes references in statute to "the ACT-PLAN" to "PreACT" to align with the renaming of the assessment by ACT; 

HB 5263, which would require the TEA to make state assessment results available to parents within one click using a unique identifier that does not require the parent to secure additional information from any third party. 

Among bills being heard in other committees that may impact public education, the Senate State Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 24, to hear testimony on SB 2044. That bill seeks to clarify definitions of "electioneering" and strengthen prohibitions on such activities by school district and open-enrollment charter school officials and employees. It would also require reporting to State Board of Educator Certification of electioneering activities by educators. The bill would also require the Commissioner of Education to appoint a conservator of a district or charter that that takes action or proceedings against the state, TEA, or officer of the state. In other words, this bill would prohibit school districts from using the court system to seek relief from any perceived unjust actions taken by TEA or the Commissioner. 

Click here to view live-streaming video of Senate committee hearings.