The ATPE Governmental Relations team recaps the past week’s education news, legislative and election updates, and regulatory developments. ATPE members: Share your thoughts and ask our lobby team questions in The Rotunda on the ATPE Online Community. 

• Shutdown chaos deepens: Layoffs, lost oversight, and the future of IDEA 
• Congratulations to the Texas Teachers of the Year!
• Early voting for the Nov. 4 election begins Monday, Oct. 20 
• TEA provides HB 2 implementation updates in latest correspondence to district leaders 
• Stay in the know and take action with ATPE’s member advocacy tools 

SHUTDOWN: In a follow-up to ATPE’s Oct. 9 Teach the Vote blog post, ATPE Lobbyist Heather Sheffield details how the ongoing federal government shutdown is endangering public education.  

The Department of Education (DOE) has confirmed that hundreds of employees have been permanently laid off rather than temporarily furloughed, and two offices responsible for ensuring  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) compliance have been hit especially hard. In light of this development, two important issues to note are: 

• Texas has been under federal oversight and required to implement a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for special education since 2018, following a federal investigation that found systemic noncompliance with IDEA requirements.  
• For months, the Trump administration has floated plans to transfer IDEA oversight from DOE to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But HHS itself is now in crisis, facing its own round of mass firings and partial shutdowns, including near or total elimination of the HHS divisions that could have potentially housed a relocation of IDEA oversight.  

The situation has sparked intense legal pushback, with one federal judge issuing a temporary order to block further layoffs during the shutdown. But even if the ruling holds, and even if the shutdown ends soon, it remains to be seen whether long-standing civil rights protections can survive this political and administrative upheaval.  

Read more in this blog post. 

Photo credit: Marco De La Cueva, Texas Association of School Administrators

TEACHER OF THE YEAR: During an awards ceremony Friday, the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) named ATPE member Vickiela Wright the 2026 Texas Teacher of the Year. Wright, a fifth-grade English language arts teacher at McWhirter Elementary School in Clear Creek ISD, will represent the state in the National Teacher of the Year competition. Timothy Fails, a geography teacher at Flower Mound 9th Grade Campus (FM9) in Lewisville ISD, was named the 2026 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. TASA also honored all 40 Regional Teachers of the Year as well as the six finalists for Texas Teacher of the year. Congratulations to all! 

EARLY VOTING: Early voting for the Nov. 4 election begins Monday, Oct. 20. A special election will be held to fill the 18th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House as well as the Texas Senate District 9 seat. Texans will also vote on 17 proposed state constitutional amendments and various local offices and ballot measures, including some school board races and propositions. In this blog post, ATPE Lobbyist Heather Sheffield outlines three proposed state constitutional amendments that impact public education.  

Here are some important dates to keep in mind leading up to Election Day: 

• Monday, Oct. 20–Friday, Oct. 31: Early voting 
• Friday, Oct. 24: Last day to apply for ballot by mail 
• Tuesday, Nov. 4: Election Day 

TEA: On Oct. 16, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continued its steady weekly release of To the Administrator Addressed (TAA) correspondence, including updates to new teacher certification requirements and changes to the spending requirement for the Compensatory Education (Comp Ed) Allotment. 

You can view this and other TAA letters on TEA’s website.    

MEMBER ADVOCACY: Even when the Legislature’s not in session, we urge you to stay informed and engaged. Here are a few advocacy resources to check out: 

• Advocacy Central: Get in touch with your elected officials about the legislation impacting your profession.  
• Judy: Chat with ATPE’s new AI assistant for Texas educators, ready to help you with all things ATPE and all things #txed.   
• ATPE Member Advocate Program (ATPE-MAP): Enroll in ATPE-MAP to earn state-level and local-level advocacy microcredentials, as well as earn continuing professional education (CPE) credit. ATPE-MAP is included in your member benefits, so be sure to check it out today.    
• ATPE Professional Learning (PL) Portal: Three sessions from the 2025 ATPE Summit are available in the ATPE PL Portal: an HB 2 compensation overview, the ATPE lobby team’s advocacy update and the closing keynote by Jonathan Alsheimer. Log in to watch the recordings and earn 1.5 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) credit. (Jonathan Alsheimer’s appearance arranged through Gotham Artists.) 
• The Rotunda: Don’t forget, members, that you can interact with your ATPE lobby team throughout the week when you log in to the ATPE Online Community.