Early Tuesday morning, March 25, the Senate Education K-16 Committee met to hear a number of bills on student discipline, truancy, and other topics, and to take votes on pending bills heard earlier this session. 

ATPE registered our support for the following bills, which were the first to be heard by the committee this week: Senate Bill (SB) 870 by Sen. Brian Birdwell (R–Waco) relating to the open carrying of a handgun by a uniformed school marshal; SB 226 by Sen. Royce West (D–Dallas) relating to establishing residency for children who are the subject of parental child safety placement agreements for purposes of admission into public schools; and SB 326 by Sen. Phil King (R–Arlington) relating to the procedure for determining whether a student's violation of a school's code of conduct was motivated by antisemitism. ATPE registered our support for all three of the bills. 

The committee also heard the following bills pertaining to student discipline: SB 1871 (committee substitute version) by Sen. Charles Perry (R–Lubbock) a wide ranging bill on  student discipline; SB 1872 (committee substitute) by Perry relating to student expulsion; SB 1873 by Perry relating in-school or out-of-school suspension; SB 1874 by Perry adding educator immunity for certain actions concerning student discipline and law and order; and SB 1924 (committee substitute) by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Beaumont) relating to enforcement of certain criminal offenses on school property. Perry and Creighton presented these bills together as a “discipline package.” The committee substitutes were not available online at the time of the hearing. ATPE registered our support for SB 1872, SB 1873, and SB 1874, and we provided written testimony on SB 1924. 

ATPE also offered testimony in support of Creighton’s SB 27 dealing with public school educators’ rights and assistance provided to public schools by the Texas Education Agency related to educators. 

Next, the committee heard the following bills regarding truancy: SB 570 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) relating to an attendance policy adopted by public schools to prevent truancy; SB 991 by Bettencourt on treating chronically absent and truant students as being at risk of dropping out of school and collecting and reporting data about those students; and SB 1925 by Creighton which would reinstate criminal penalties for truancy. ATPE registered support for SB 570 and SB 991. 

The committee voted to advance the following bills that we brought to your attention in last week’s Teach the Vote Week in Review: 

SB 27 by Creighton passed on a 9-0 vote. 

SB 207 by Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney) passed on an 11-0 vote and was recommended for placement on the local and uncontested calendar. 

SB 568 by Bettencourt passed on an 11-0 vote. 

SB 920 by Sen. Kevin Sparks (R–Midland) passed on an 11-0 vote. 

SB 1207 by King passed on an 11-0 vote and was recommended for the local and uncontested calendar. 

SB 1396 by Sen. Bob Hall (R–Rockwall) passed on a 9-2 vote. Sens. West and Jose Menendez (D – San Antonio) voted against the bill. 

SB 1619 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D–Laredo) passed on an 11-0 vote and was recommended for the local and uncontested calendar. 

The Senate Education K-16 Committee will meet again Thursday, March 27, but they will focus almost exclusively on higher education bills at that hearing. 

As bills move through the legislative process, further debate and potential amendments are expected. Stay tuned for updates as the session progresses.