Bills of interest are passing out of the House, Senate

A number of education-related bills have not only passed out of committee but also have been approved by the House or Senate and will now move to the other chamber.

House bills headed to the Senate this week include:

• HB 773 by Rep. Gary Van Deaver, which would include the number of students successfully completing a CTE program of study in the student achievement domain of the accountability system.
• HB 1585 by Rep. Stan Lambert, the TRS Sunset bill that includes provisions to improve the agency’s communications with its members.
• HB 1603 by Rep. Dan Huberty, which would eliminate the 2023 expiration date for the law that provides for individual graduation committees, continuing them indefinitely.

These Senate bills passed this week are on their way to the House:

• SB 28 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, is a controversial charter school bill. Educator groups opposed the bill for its relaxation of laws governing charter schools. The bill limits the ability of the SBOE to veto the commissioner’s approval of a charter school to specific reasons, and requires a majority of 9 of the 15 board members to veto a charter, as opposed to the current 8 required for a veto under current law.
• SB 29 by Sen. Charles Perry requires public school students to participate in UIL athletics based on their biological sex. An exception would allow female students to compete in a competition designated for males if there is not a corresponding competition for females.
• SB 179 by Sen. Eddie Lucio would require districts to adopt a policy requiring that counselors spend at least 80% of their work time on counseling duties (which do not include test administration).
• SB 347 by Sen. Angela Paxton requires school health advisory councils to comply with open meetings and open records laws.
• SB 89 by Sen. Jose Menendez would require districts to prepare a supplement to a student’s IEP that notes whether the child’s full evaluation or initial IEP was completed during the 2019-20 or 2020-21 school year, and if so whether it was completed by the required date; and whether the child’s special education services were interrupted, reduced, delayed, suspended or discontinued during those school years.