Legislators must conclude their business in the 2nd called special session by Sunday. The Texas Constitution requires that all bills that pass must be reported out of committee three days before the Legislature adjourns sine die, so we are truly nearing the end of this process for any bill that has not already passed one chamber and been approved by committee in the second.

The Texas Senate concurred with the House changes to SB 15 (Taylor/Keith Bell), the remote instruction bill. That means the bill is headed to Governor Abbott's desk to be signed into law--a feat not accomplished during the regular session.

The bill will take effect immediately (once signed), and language was added so that students who have already been participating in a local remote learning program during the 2021-22 school year will qualify for ADA funding (even before passage and effective date of the bill) so long as the program is operating under the standards and requirements specified in law.

SB 15 allows districts rated with a C or better to offer a local remote learning program for up to 10% of the district’s enrollment (more if a waiver is granted; also special education and 504 students do not count against the 10% cap) . Students participating in such a program would count towards ADA for funding purposes (unless they participated in remote learning last year and failed the STAAR assessment or if they have excessive unexcused absences). This program and funding will expire September 1, 2023.

For more details on this bill, please see our newly updated SB 15 Section-by-Section.

Three bills were advanced by the House Public Education Committee and scheduled for consideration by the Texas House tomorrow.

SB 3 (Hughes/Huberty) is the anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) bill. SB 3 would repeal everything added to law by HB 3979 from the regular session and put the following in place instead:

SB 9 (Huffman/Dutton) requires schools provide instruction and materials and adopt policies relating to the prevention of child abuse, family violence, and dating violence, and requires a parental opt-out. This bill was passed during the regular session and then vetoed by Governor Abbott because it did not include a parental opt-out.

HB 233 (Huberty) relating to providing accelerated instruction for public school students who fail to achieve satisfactory performance on reading and math assessment instruments (rather than all assessments). The bill also increases the maximum size for small group instruction for AI from 3 to 10 students and makes other changes that would aid school districts in the implementation of this new law and help to focus instructional resources on the students who need them most. Northwest ISD Superintendent Ryder Warren did an excellent job outlining the needs for this legislation when he testified in the committee hearing Monday.

Please note that HB 233 is a House bill just now being considered in the House. If it passes the House, it will require a VERY strong desire among leadership in the Senate in order for the bill to be received, referred, heard, and reported out of the Senate committee in order to meet the 3-day deadline before the end of a legislative session specified in the Texas Constitution. It's not impossible, but it would require a miracle or two. We'll see what the special session, and the Texas Senate (who love to suspend rules), have to offer before this session comes to a close.

The Senate Finance Committee advanced SB 91 (Bettencourt) out of committee on Monday. It could be heard by the full Senate as early as today.

SB 91 seeks to provide temporary property tax relief in the 2022-23 school year. Following that one-time temporary rate reduction, tax rates would return to previous calculations in the 2023-24 school year (on track with the rate compression from HB 3). The bill appropriates the lesser of $4 billion or $2 billion plus 50% of any budget surplus estimated by the Comptroller to cover the cost of funding reductions experienced by schools when less local taxes are collected. This is estimated to deliver property tax rate reduction somewhere in the range of 6-12 cents.

The Texas School Coalition testified on SB 91 today, voicing support for sustainable tax relief that would be more meaningful to taxpayers, rather than one year of temporary relief, followed by rates that jump back up.

As stated above, it is challenging for a bill just now being heard in its chamber of origin to make it all the way to final passage at this point in the session, but not impossible. Unusual things can happen in a special session, but House rules are much harder to suspend, and the chances of this bill passing during the second called session are very slim. This bill could be considered again in a future special session (we know there is at least one more to come).

Here is a quick rundown on other bills we've been following:

Please join us for a (virtual) Texas School Coalition meeting and update on Wednesday, September 15, at 2:00 p.m. Click below to register. We hope to see you there!