On Wednesday, April 17, 2019, the House Public Education Committee heard bills on a variety of topics including the donation of excess food at school, virtual schools, workplace bullying of teachers, and even the Ten Commandments.

ATPE supported several bills by registering in favor of the following:

• House Bill (HB) 414 (Flynn, R-Van) would create the Teacher's Protection Act, which includes a defense against prosecutions for actions taken in an educator's self-defense.
• HB 1394 (Bohac, R-Houston) aims to protect teachers from being sanctioned by the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) for their reasonable use of force against a student.
• HB 3220 (Allison, R-San Antonio) would add licensed specialists in school psychology (LSSPs) to the definition of mental health professional and allow them to be eligible for loan repayment assistance in certain circumstances.
• HB 3403 (Cortez, D-San Antonio) would require school district employment policies to include anti-bullying measures for educators, including provisions to address parents who bully teachers.
• HB 3638 (Patterson, R-Frisco) would lift certain mandates on schools as identified by the Lieutenant Governor's mandate relief working group in which ATPE participated last year.
• HB 3696 (Bell, K., R-Forney) would add the number (rather than percentage) of students who complete a practicum or internship approved by the State Board of Education (SBOE) and students who complete a coherent sequence of career and technical education (CTE) courses as measures within the student achievement domain of the state's accountability system.
• HB 3882 (Wilson, R-Marble Falls) would transfer rulemaking authority from the Commissioner of Education to the University Interscholastic League (UIL) for extracurricular activity safety training programs. This is also one portion of the main mandate relief bill referenced above.
• HB 3906 (Huberty, R-Kingwood) would change references to "reading" to say "language arts" in multiple sections of the law and eliminate the grade 4 and 7 writing test, but add writing to the annual language arts tests. This bill also includes provisions of Rep. Gary VanDeaver's (R-New Boston) writing portfolio assessment pilot legislation and allows assessments to be administered in multiple parts over more than one day.
• HB 3963 (Allen, D-Houston) would allow schools to elect to donate extra food to a nonprofit and includes related food safety precautions.
• HB 4095 (Beckley, D-Carrollton) would require school boards to adopt a policy on custodian workloads.
• HB 4096 (Beckley, D-Carrollton) would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to study recommended standards for school district facility maintenance and custodial services.
• House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 134 (Dutton, D-Houston) would designate the second Tuesday in October as Legislators in Schools Day, an opportunity for lawmakers to visit  a classroom in their districts.

ATPE submitted written testimony against HB 1921 by Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco). This bill would remove the cap on funding for full-time virtual schools by eliminating a provision that states funding is limited to programs that were operating on January 1, 2013. This provision was a key addition to the virtual school program law because it ensured that full-time virtual school programs, would neither be completely shut down nor be allowed to replicate until more data was collected on their efficacy. Since that legislation was passed, a growing body of evidence has shown that virtual schools are a poor substitute for traditional, brick-and-mortar classrooms. Therefore, ATPE opposes further expansion of virtual schools as contemplated by this bill. Read our written testimony against HB 1921 here.

The following bills were also heard by the committee on Wednesday:

• HB 307 (Flynn, R-Van): States that school boards cannot prohibit the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
• HB 875 (Allen, D-Houston): Would require that superintendents annually report on student restraints, complaints filed against students, citations issued to students, and student arrests. The data would be made available to the public by TEA.
• HB 1017 (Martinez, D-Weslaco): Would require schools with 50% or more of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch to donate food to a nonprofit to be distributed to students at the campus.
• HB 1416 (Lucio III, D-Brownsville): Would require TEA to adopt uniform general conditions for school building construction contracts.
• HB 2002 (Leach, R-Plano): Would require that districts report their total expenses related to administering required assessments.
• HB 2183 (Allen, D-Houston): Would require schools to report to TEA and in the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) on students who are released to their parents before the end of the instructional day. Parents would have access to the report.
• HB 2609 (King, K., R-Canadian): Would allow school districts to assign ESL teachers to bilingual education programs if they have a shortage of bilingual education teachers. The committee substitute for the bill allows the bilingual education allotment to be used for teacher salaries and for certifying bilingual teachers in the district.
• HB 2691 (VanDeaver, R-New Boston): Would require providers of online services used for a school purpose to use unique identifiers that masks student information.
• HB 2797 (Hinojosa, D-Austin): Enables specialized support campuses or those that only serve students in special education to be considered separately for accountability purposes.
• HB 3000 (Talarico, D-Round Rock): Would require schools to notify TEA and give written notice to parents if there is a data breach in the district involving students' information. TEA would maintain a public database of such breaches.
• HB 3132 (Allen, D-Houston): Would require that staff development for teachers who provide reading instruction in grades K-3 include training in effective instructional practices and the use of validated instructional methods.
• HB 3146 (Meza, D-Irving): Would require schools to offer students a vegan breakfast and lunch option.
• HB 3204 (Sanford, R-McKinney): Would prohibit the governing board or commissioners court from including more than one project in any proposition submitted to authorize the issuance of bonds.
• HB 3467 (King, K., R-Canadian): Would change how School Land Board (SLB) cash is handled to try to increase the ability of the SLB and SBOE to make returns to public education. There have been recent concerns with money that the SLB and SBOE manage and invest, which ultimately makes its way into public schools.
• HB 3630 (Meyer, R-Dallas): Would prohibit school district employees from engaging in  dangerous techniques for student discipline, which disproportionately impact students with disabilities.
• HB 3820 (Sherman, D-DeSoto): Would require (at state cost) school districts to administer one of the ACT or SAT to certain students who have taken the Algebra I or English I or II end-of-course exam (EOC).
• HB 3846 (Capriglione, R-Southlake): Would require the SBOE to develop "mini-courses" on topics such as personal financial literacy, computer coding, and cybersecurity, which districts could use after assessments are administered.
• HB 3884 (Wilson, R-Marble Falls): Transfers duties for providing bacterial meningitis information from TEA to the Department of State Health Services.
• HB 3141 (Swanson, R-Spring): Would prohibit a school district from having certain business interests in real estate; arts, entertainment, and recreation; or accommodation and food services.
• HB 4454 (Rodriguez, D-Austin): Would require the SBOE to adopt developmentally appropriate standards for social and emotional learning and require school districts to use the standards in  appropriate educational programs.
• HB 4626 (Swanson, R-Spring): Would make the Harris County Department of Education subject to sunset review.

The House Public Education Committee will meet next Tuesday, April 23, at 8 am. See the agenda here, which includes a bill to make children of educators eligible for prekindergarten and a bill to ensure that public school counselors' time is spent on core counseling duties. The committee is also expected to meet briefly on Thursday, April 18, merely for voting on pending bills.