The Texas House had a busy week as it faced two of its biggest deadlines of the session— the May 12 deadline for House committees to report House bills out of committee, and the May 15 deadline for House bills to be considered on second reading on the House floor.   

Monday’s committee deadline 

Monday, May 12, was the deadline for House bills to be reported out of committee. Any bill not voted out of committee by the end of that day is likely dead, though they can be revived through procedural maneuvers, such as adding the bill to another House bill that is moving as an amendment.  

Bills ATPE was monitoring that are effectively dead as of Monday evening include: 

• House Bill (HB) 7 by Rep. Jeff Leach (R–Plano), the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights,” would have made changes to the reporting of educator misconduct; created new procedures in the grievance process for a parent appealing to the commissioner; required the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to maintain and publish a list of parental rights on the agency’s website; required districts to provide more information to parents, including lists of the materials their children check out from the library, as well as a syllabus or instructional plan for each course at the beginning of a semester; and required parental consent for any psychological and psychiatric testing or treatment of a child. ATPE provided testimony on the bill, asking for the burdensome psychological and psychiatric testing provision to be removed, as well as asking for language to be clarified in the educator misconduct section. Language from HB 7 has since been added to Senate Bill (SB) 571 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), which was advanced by the House Public Education Committee on Friday morning. 
• ATPE-opposed HB 5019 by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R–Keller) would have taken away educators’ ability to use payroll deduction to pay their association dues. ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave testified against the bill, asking the committee to consider the negative impacts of such a move on already overworked and overburdened educators, as well as pointing out the bill’s clear constitutional issues, including violation of educators’ free speech rights. ATPE also submitted written testimony against the bill.   
• ATPE-opposed HB 54 by Rep. Stan Gerdes (R–Smithville) was meant to ban “furries” from public schools. The bill stemmed from an alleged incident in Gerdes’ hometown district, Smithville ISD, and aimed to target both clothing, such as cat ear headbands, and “animal behavior,” such as meowing. ATPE opposed the bill. In addition to seemingly being designed to cast dispersion on public schools, HB 54 as drafted was vague and overly broad, which was made more problematic because it was tied to financial penalties for already cash-strapped schools.   

It is important to note that while these bills are technically and procedurally dead, nothing is ever truly dead until the end of the session. These bills can be revived by tacking them on to the remaining Senate bills going through the House if they are compatible with those bills.   

Tuesday’s House Public Education Committee hearing 

The House Public Education Committee met Tuesday with eight bills on its agenda. They heard the following two bills: 

• SB 12 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), an omnibus “parental rights” bill stating that parents have the right to review all curriculum and instructional materials (a right parents already hold and have long held), as well as student academic and health records. The bill also incorporates parts of individual bills eventually heard Thursday, including legislation that would open up district transfers and ban “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) duties” while creating grievance processes for enforcing DEI prohibitions. ATPE submitted neutral testimony on the bill.  
• SB 1191 by Creighton would require a standard statewide method of computing a student’s high school grade point average. Currently, this is done at the local level, and different districts use different scales and assign different weights to courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) or dual credit.  

The committee then adjourned to head to the House floor. The committee was supposed to resume after the House adjourned Tuesday, but the remainder of the hearing was cancelled and rescheduled for Thursday morning. 

Thursday’s Public Education Committee hearing  

On Thursday morning, the House Public Education Committee convened to finish its agenda from Tuesday.  The committee heard the following bills: 

• ATPE-supported HB 226 by Sen. Royce West (D–Dallas) would make it easier for children who are subject to parental child safety placement agreements to be enrolled in public schools. This would be accomplished through use of a letter from the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) as proof of residency for enrollment. 
• SB 413 by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R–Galveston) would create new requirements for the minutes of school board meetings, including a requirement to post attendance and vote records, as well as a deadline to post the minutes of the meeting on the district’s website.  
• ATPE-supported SB 571 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) would expand background check and eligibility requirements for contract employees working in public schools and grant broader access to the state’s registry of individuals ineligible for school employment. The committee substitute for the bill includes language from HB 7.  
• SB 1049 by Sen. Phil King (R–Weatherford) seeks to allow excused absences from public school for the purpose of attending a released time course. A released time course allows public school students to be excused from regular classes during school hours to receive religious instruction off-campus. 
• ATPE-supported SB 2398 by Sen. Donna Campbell (R–New Braunfels) seeks to require public schools to adopt policies for handling student concussions, provide academic accommodations for affected students, and develop standardized forms for those accommodations. 
• SB 2920 by Campbell would permit steroid use by students in University Interscholastic League (UIL) athletic competitions only when dispensed, prescribed, delivered, and administered by a medical practitioner for a valid medical purpose, explicitly excluding the use of steroids for gender transition purposes.  

Thursday’s floor deadline 

The House convened Thursday morning with more than 400 House bills on its agenda, following a busy week in which representatives had worked 12-plus hour days and yet fell further and further behind in their calendar. Midnight Thursday was the deadline for the House to pass House bills on second reading. The chamber made it through approximately half of its agenda before the clock struck midnight. The last bill considered by the full House was SB 901 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R–Brenham), the Senate companion to HB 5430 by Rep. Terry Wilson (R–Georgetown). The bill would prevent candidates from filing to appear on the primary ballot for more than one political party. 

The mood on the House floor was hectic and chaotic as the clock crept closer to midnight, with lawmakers shouting over each other, denying time for other members to ask questions on bills, and the Speaker moving bills so quickly many members said they weren’t sure which bill they were on. Legislative staff filled the gallery to watch and cheer on their bosses as the clock struck 12.  

The House now moves to considering Senate bills and has 12 days remaining to do so. 

Friday’s formal Public Education Committee hearing 

The House Public Education Committee met Friday morning in a formal, unbroadcast meeting to vote out the Senate bills it had heard earlier in the week. Formal meetings happen more and more frequently as the session draws to a close and deadlines loom.  The House has 12 remaining days to consider Senate bills on the House floor, which means this coming week is really the last chance for Senate bills to be considered and moved in committee.  

The following bills (all explained above) were voted out of committee Friday morning: SB 12, ATPE-supported HB 226, SB 413, SB 1049, ATPE-supported SB 2398, SB 2920, SB 1191, and ATPE-supported SB 571. In addition, the committee voted to advance:  

• SB 13 by Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney) would add “indecent” and “profane” content to the list of prohibited library materials. The bill would also require parents to have access to library materials and to monitor the items their students check out. It would require the creation of local school library advisory councils to address challenges to library books.   
• SB 57 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D–Laredo) would require public schools to develop plans specifically tailored to ensuring the safety of individuals with disabilities or impairments during school drills, disasters, or emergencies. ATPE submitted written testimony expressing concerns about potential increased administrative burden on educators.   

Seventeen days remain before the 89th Legislature adjourns sine die.