The Regular Session is Over

What Happens Next with All of the New Laws?

David D. Anderson, HillCo Partners

As a student at McGregor High School many years ago, I learned about the workings of the 61st Texas Legislature in my senior government class. My smart and enthusiastic teacher cited Mark Twain’s observation that “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session” and added that legislative rules were created to make passing bills difficult. She observed that Texas is better because bills are hard to pass. While Twain did make that comment many times, the person who first noted this pithy observation was Gideon John Tucker, an American lawyer, newspaper editor and politician. In 1866, as Surrogate of New York County, he wrote in a decision on a legal malpractice claim against a deceased lawyer’s estate: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

In total, 1,474 education related bills were filed in the regular session of the 88th Texas Legislature. That session ended on May 29 with 141 education bills that became law. With the first called special session over with no bills passed by both chambers and the second now underway, the legislators will have more opportunities to live up to the expectations expressed by Tucker and Twain in the Nineteenth Century.

This raises two questions.

First, now that the regular session has adjourned sine die, do you feel safer?

Second, what happens next with those hundred plus new laws that affect public schools?

First, let’s note that there are multiple sources of Texas law.

The state constitution is the document that governs Texas government.

Statutes are the laws enacted by the Texas Legislature during regular and special sessions. Once a bill becomes law, the Texas Administrative Code must be updated to reflect the new laws. The Legislature authorizes agencies and commissions to create these rules to help administer and carry out the law. The rules are compiled and organized by subject matter by the Texas Secretary of State as the Texas Administrative Code or TAC for short.

Additionally, case law is the body of judicial decisions from the courts. School leaders often see attorney general opinions in response to questions about laws. While the AG opinions are persuasive, these opinions are non-binding interpretations of the law from the AG.

Over the next year, the State Board of Education (SBOE) and the Commissioner of Education and his staff at the Texas Education Agency will plan and carry out rulemaking. While administrative code rulemaking is not as well publicized or monitored as lawmaking, trustees and school leaders across Texas must pay attention to this critical process. TASPA and other professional associations play an important role in keeping educators informed about the process and the proposed rules.

When the SBOE met the week of June 18th, the Commissioner and TEA staff presented highlights of eighteen bills that will require rulemaking by the SBOE or the Commissioner or the creation of standards at the state level that will guide local school board policies and practices. The following are six examples of the bills with a few highlights for each, and the rulemaking authority:

HB 1416 Accelerated Instruction (Update of HB 4545)-Commissioner rulemaking authority

• Eliminated the accelerated learning committee (ALC) requirement and clarified parental “opt out” protocols.

• Decreased the maximum number of subjects to two while prioritizing RLA /math and reducing requirements to 15 hours for some students.

• Increased student to teacher ratios from 3:1 to 4:1. Ratio waived with use of approved automated/online curriculum (list available in Spring 2024).

HB 900 School Library Books-SBOE rulemaking authority

• The Texas State Library and Archives Commission, with approval by the SBOE, will adopt standards for school library collection development policies.

• The standards adopted will be reviewed every five years and must prohibit harmful material, sexually explicit material, and pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable relevant material.

• Library material vendors must issue appropriate ratings for sexually explicit and sexually relevant materials previously sold to school districts by April 2024.

• Vendors may not sell any books with sexually explicit content moving forward and must report a list to TEA of books already sold to libraries with such content.

HB 3803 Parental Election for a Child to Repeat a Course-Commissioner rulemaking authority

• A parent or guardian may elect for a student, in a grade up to grade eight, to repeat the grade in which the student was enrolled during the previous school year or for a student to repeat a high school course.

• For high school courses, the school district/open enrollment charter can deny if it is determined the student has met all requirements for graduation.

HB 1605 High Quality Curriculum-SBOE and Commissioner rulemaking authority for various sections of this comprehensive bill

• Teachers cannot be required to use bi-weekly planning time to create initial instructional materials unless there is a supplemental duty agreement with the teacher.

HB 3928 Dyslexia Evaluations-SBOE and Commissioner rulemaking authority

• Requires someone with specific knowledge on dyslexia and related disorders on the evaluation team and Admission, Review and Dismissal Committee when dyslexia is suspected/identified.

• Board of Trustees must adopt a policy requiring that the district follow all state and federal requirements for the evaluation, identification, and services for dyslexia.

• SBOE must revise its Dyslexia Handbook by 6/30/24 to remove references to “standard protocol dyslexia instruction” so that it is not distinct for all other types of dyslexia instruction.

• Requires specific notification about the parent’s right to request special education evaluation when student is placed in a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) and when returning to school after DAEP.

SB 2124 Middle School Advanced Math Requirements-Commissioner rulemaking authority

• As soon as practicable, school systems must enroll 6th grade students in an advanced math course if they performed in the top 40% on the 5th grade STAAR math assessment or similar local measures.

• This will require advanced math courses (e.g., Algebra I) to be offered in middle school if those courses are not currently offered.

• Parents may opt their children out of this requirement.

The Commissioner rulemaking will begin this summer and the SBOE rulemaking will begin at its next meeting on August 29-September 1.

If you are interested in learning more about TAC rules and how those rules are created, the Texas Secretary of State website is an informative resource: https:// www.sos.state.tx.us/tac/index.shtml.

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