The House Public Education Committee met Tuesday for the first time since passage of school finance and voucher legislation April 16 and 17. On the agenda were two bills to give recapture credits for districts dealing with windstorm insurance payments and districts that prepay their recapture payments, respectively. Additionally, there were bills dealing with parental notification of educators accused of sexual assault, regulations and rules for charter and homeschool programs, and a ban on flying drones over public schools.  

The committee heard the following bills:  

• HB 178 by Rep. Christina Morales (D–Houston), which would add ethnic studies as a required social studies course for graduation. Currently three credits in social studies are required for graduation, with a full year of U.S. history as well as a semester each of government and economics required. Students are allowed to choose between world geography and world history for the third credit.  
• HB 1551 by Rep. Hillary Hickland (R–Belton), which would require the school to notify parents if an educator is alleged to have committed a criminal offense such as a sexual assault. ATPE submitted written testimony on the bill, asking that private schools and homeschool cooperatives be added to this bill in order to protect all children, not just those in public schools, from potential predators.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1939 by Rep. Morgan Meyer (R–Dallas), which would allow school districts to receive a discount if they make their recapture payments early. 
• HB 2040 by Rep. Ken King (R–Canadian), which would set the number of required instructional minutes a Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) to 43,200 minutes, which is the amount required for other alternative education programs, such as adult education and dropout recovery programs. 
• ATPE-opposed HB 2354 by Rep. Matt Shaheen (R–Plano), which would redefine charter schools as local government entities despite not having elected governing bodies. ATPE is concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability that could come from this move. Additionally, the bill could allow for more discriminatory admission practices in charter schools.  
• ATPE-opposed HB 2674 by Rep. David Cook (R–Mansfield), which would prohibit the regulation of homeschools in Texas. ATPE’s concerns about this bill include its effect on existing regulations that include homeschools, as well as the need for rulemaking following the passage of voucher bill SB 2 that will necessarily include homeschooling because homeschoolers may receive the voucher funds. ATPE has consistently maintained that any entity receiving public funds should be subject to public regulation. 
• ATPE-supported HB 3029 by Rep. Donna Howard (D–Austin), which would allow school nurses at public, private, and charter schools to administer non-prescription medication to students as long as they have the consent of the student’s parent or guardian. Currently only prescription medication is allowed to be administered at school. 
• HB 3460 by Rep. Harold Dutton (D–Houston), which would allow TEA to grant certification exceptions for teachers in bilingual or dual language programs. Currently, many districts are missing out on extra bilingual funding due to a lack of certified bilingual teachers. 
• ATPE-supported HB 3631 by Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi), which would provide recapture credits for districts struggling to pay for windstorm and hail insurance as insurance costs continue to rise, particularly in coastal areas.  
• ATPE-supported HB 3662 by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R–Keller), which would prohibit the flying of a drone over public, private, and charter schools. 
• HB 5201 by Rep. Janie Lopez (R–San Benito), which would require school districts to ensure that project managers overseeing district construction projects are bonded. 
• HB 5381 by Rep. David Lowe (R–Fort Worth), which would seek to prevent school disruptions for military dependents facing frequent relocations by allowing them timely enrollment; consistent placement in programs such as gifted and talented or dual language if they were enrolled in the program at their previous school; and graduation requirements that take into account the student’s previous coursework. It would also require districts to make these rules available on their website. 

Additionally, the committee voted out approximately 30 bills that were pending. They are: 

• HB 123 by Dutton would expand testing in lower grades K-3 with the intent of catching literacy and numeracy issues early. The bill would also require that K-8 teachers who teach math attend a math academy, and it would provide funding for early literacy interventions. ATPE Governmental Relations Director Monty Exter testified on the bill before the committee March 18, stating that while ATPE doesn’t oppose the concept of reading or math academies, we are hopeful that lessons from the rollout of the reading academies would be applied to implementation of the math academies, preventing issues related to the unpaid time required of educators originally, as well as the lack of relevant information the academies provided to many experienced educators. He also expressed concern about the addition of testing in lower grades, which Exter argued isn’t needed because educators are already assessing students in early grades for reading proficiency. Regarding the bill’s high-intensity tutoring provision and associated $250 allotment, Exter pointed out that funding is capped at 10% of students, which would prevent schools from hiring paraprofessionals to deliver this tutoring (100 students would be needed to pay for one paraprofessional). The bill’s committee substitute ups this cap to 15% of students in an effort to give smaller schools an opportunity to participate, but this would still not be sufficient to hire the staff needed to execute the tutoring in the bill. This bill was previously voted out of committee on April 9 on a 10-3 vote but was recalled to committee to fix some issues with the bill language. 
• SB 314 by Sen. Bryan Hughes, the companion to HB 1290 by Rep. Caroline Harris-Davila (R–Round Rock), would prohibit the use of specific food additives in school breakfasts and lunches.  
• HB 367 by Rep. Jon Rosenthal (D–Houston) would establish the documentation needed to verify a serious or life-threatening illness for the purposes of missing school. The bill would require the creation of a form to verify the illness with the student’s physician.  
• HB 549 by Rep. Cody Vasut (R–Angleton) would require districts to place an airway clearance device on every campus and ensure that at least one staff member on each campus is trained to use the device. ATPE opposed voting this bill out of committee due to concerns raised by the medical community about the safety and efficacy of these devices. 
• ATPE-supported HB 824 by Rep. Jolanda Jones (D–Houston) would include civics instruction in the required government curriculum for high school students.  
• HB 983 by Rep. Candy Noble (R–Lucas) would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to keep certain information, such as names, addresses, email, Social Security numbers, and other personal information about an educator confidential.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1178 by Rep. Charles Cunningham (R–Kingwood) would create a temporary one-year educator certificate for educators who are certified in other states. Under the current out-of-state credentials review process, once an educator’s out-of-state credentials are successfully reviewed, they may be issued a one-year temporary certificate. This certificate allows them to become employed to teach for a year, and during that year they must take and pass Texas certification exams to receive a standard teaching certificate. If they do not take and pass the Texas certification exams during the one-year temporary certification window, they would not be able to remain employed as a certified educator.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1368 by Rep. Venton Jones (D–Dallas) would require that schools notify parents in writing within 30 days if they do not have an assigned nurse, school counselor, or librarian.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1411 by Rep. Alma Allen (D–Houston) would give educators who do not get paid over holiday breaks the opportunity to use their personal days in order to get paid for that time.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1441 by Rep. Mihaela Plesa (D–Plano) would require that school district police and school resource officers receive training in mental health conditions such as grief and trauma, as well as encourage the use of grief-informed and trauma-informed strategies when responding to incidents. ‘ 
• ATPE-supported HB 1579 by Rep. Bobby Guerra (D–McAllen) would establish the Texas State Seal of Bilingualism and Biliteracy for high school students. The bill would create a formal recognition on a student’s transcript that the student is biliterate and has achieved fluency in a language other than English.  
• HB 1581 by Guerra would provide training materials to school districts for bilingual, dual language immersion, and special language programs, as well as additional monitoring of the program by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The bill is derived from the recommendations of the TEA Strategic Plan for Emergent Bilingual Support.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1773 by Rep. Salman Bhojani (D–Euless) would allow school districts to create a non-voting student position on a school board.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1813 by Rep. John Bucy (D–Cedar Park) would require districts to share information with parents about their right to have an attorney represent them in a special education due process hearing, as well as provide instructions for accessing the website listing individuals eligible to represent parents and instructions for filing complaints against non-attorney representatives. The bill would also update rules for such representatives, including requiring training in special education law.  
• ATPE-supported HB 2107 by Rep. Caroline Fairly (R–Amarillo) would allow school districts to decide if their staff must complete certain training annually or can do so every other year. This would apply to annual trainings required by the state, such as the bloodborne pathogens training educators complete every year.   
• HB 2189 by Rep. Donna Howard (D–Austin) aims to improve high school health-related CTE courses by providing high-quality instructional materials; studying the feasibility of partnerships between districts and colleges for the purposes of sharing labs and equipment; and requiring a regular review of dual-credit health programs to ensure alignment with university degree programs.  
• HB 2243 by Rep. Tom Oliverson (R–Cypress) would create a Texas Commission on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention. ATPE provided written testimony to the committee on the bill, asking for teachers to be included in the panel along with fewer legislators, as well as asking for the study of additional information. A committee substitute is now available that does add teachers to the commission, as ATPE recommended. Thus, ATPE is now supporting the bill, and we are appreciative to the author for adopting our recommendations.  
• ATPE-supported HB 2310 by Rep. Claudia Ordaz (D–El Paso) would require TEA, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to develop a strategic plan to improve early learning for students with disabilities.  
• HB 2598 by Rep. Angie Chen Button (R–Richardson) would change the name of LSSPs (licensed specialist in school psychology) from LSSP to school psychologist in the education code. Button said during her bill layout that the bill and its changes were necessary to align education code with the rules of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (TSBEP), which amended their rules to allow for the use of the title “school psychologist.”  
• ATPE-supported HB 2849 by Allen would require the Department of State Health Services School Health Advisory Committee to develop model policies for recess that include guidelines that maximize outdoor physical activity time. Once these model polices have been developed, school districts would be required to adopt a recess policy based on the model that specifies the number of minutes of unstructured playtime provided, as well as whether that time can be withheld for disciplinary purposes.  
• ATPE-supported HB 2911 by Rep. James Frank (R–Wichita Falls) would provide a state allotment for districts that have chosen to opt out of TRS ActiveCare and self-fund staff health insurance.   
• ATPE-supported HB 2967 by Dutton would create an allotment for vision care for economically disadvantaged students and require TEA to report information regarding vision screenings on the agency website.  
• ATPE-supported HB 3099 by Rep. Stan Gerdes (R–Smithville) would specify the formula for funding an adult education program run by a charter school.  
• HB 3546 by Rep. Armando Martinez (D–Weslaco) would allow districts to hold school board elections in November if they choose to do so.  
• HB 3627 by Rep. Carl Tepper (R–Lubbock) would allow the chair of the State Board of Education (SBOE), currently Aaron Kinsey (R–Midland), to hire staff for the state board. Currently, the 15 members of the State Board of Education are unpaid and have no staff. SBOE is tasked with approving instructional materials and course content, as well as monitoring the Permanent School Fund, among other duties. TEA has dedicated staff members that assist the board with their needs. The budget rider for this bill would allow the chair to hire five staff members that report directly to him. ATPE opposed this bill being voted out of committee due to the potential TEA expansion it would cause. 
• ATPE-supported HB 3629 by Noble would ensure that registered sex offenders are not eligible to run for a position on a school district’s board of trustees.  
• ATPE-supported HB 3672 by Rep. Trent Ashby (R–Lufkin) would create an extracurricular community education grant program. The bill would allow Texas students to access enrichment clubs and after-school and summer learning opportunities through outside community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club that have partnered with school districts.  
• HB 3797 by Ashby would update Texas Education Code with new terminology to reflect student satisfactory performance on an end-of-course assessment. ACT-Plan, which is currently in statute, was phased out in 2014 and replaced with the Pre-ACT. The bill would replaces ACT-Plan with Pre-ACT in order to make the code current.  
• HB 5263 by Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) is meant to make access to the Texas state assessment portal, www.texasassessment.gov, easier for parents. The bill instructs TEA to simplify access and make information to parents available through one click on the website.  

The House Public Education Committee will meet again in a formal meeting Wednesday to consider pending committee business, and then for a regular meeting next Tuesday, April 29. There are only two weeks remaining to hear House bills in committee before the deadline, and at least one priority bill, HB 4 by Chairman Brad Buckley (R–Salado), has not yet been heard. Keep checking Teach the Vote for updates.