Over 50,000 kids are referred to juvenile probation each year, and 30% are school-based referrals. Sadly, Black students are 31% more likely to receive a disciplinary action than white or Latinx students. It is critical to reverse the pipeline of kids into the justice system. The bills below will help address the underlying issues that drive kids into the system, increase data collection on school-based infractions, help students transition from alternative placements into regular classrooms, and improve the treatment of students in school.
HB 18 (Authors: Price, Huberty, Senfronia Thompson, Coleman, Greg Bonnen | Sponsor: Watson), Relating to consideration of the mental health of public school students in training requirements for certain school employees, curriculum requirements, counseling programs, educational programs, state and regional programs and services, and health care services for students and to mental health first aid program training and reporting regarding local mental health authority and school district personnel. This comprehensive bill takes several steps to address the mental health of students. For instance:
School improvement plans: Each school district’s improvement plan must include strategies for improving student performance that specifically include: positive behavior interventions and support (including those that integrate best practices on grief-informed and trauma-informed care), and evidence-based practices that address the needs of students for special programs (e.g., suicide and violence prevention, and conflict resolution).
Educator training: Training required for a teaching certificate, as well as continuing educational requirements, must include strategies for teaching and intervening with students who have mental health conditions or engage in substance abuse. Furthermore, staff development for educators must include training related to students with disabilities who may have other intellectual or mental health conditions, suicide prevention, recognizing signs of mental health conditions and substance abuse, establishing and maintaining positive relationships among students (including conflict resolution), how grief and trauma affect student learning and behavior, and addressing bullying.
Principals’ continuing education: Principals must take continuing education courses regarding:
- mental health programs;
- students eligible to participate in special education programs, students with intellectual or developmental disabilities, students who are eligible to receive educational services under federal disability law, and students with mental health conditions or who engage in substance abuse; and
- how mental health conditions, including grief and trauma, affect student learning and behavior, as based on relevant best practice-based programs and research-based practices.
Counselors’ continuing education: Counselors’ continuing education must include instruction regarding counseling students concerning mental health conditions and substance abuse, including through grief-informed and trauma-informed interventions and crisis management and suicide prevention strategies.
Schools’ health curriculum: Each school district’s health curriculum must emphasize both physical health and mental health, including instruction about mental health conditions and substance abuse; the health curriculum must specifically address the science, risk factors, and causes of substance abuse (drugs and alcohol). Also, school-based health centers can provide treatment for mental health conditions and substance abuse.
Online resources: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) must include resources on its website for school district or charter school employees regarding working with students who engage in substance abuse. Furthermore, school districts must publicize a statement of the policies and procedures adopted to promote the physical health and mental health of students, the physical health and mental health resources available at each campus, contact information for the nearest providers of essential public health services, and the contact information for the nearest Local Mental Health Authority (LMHA), as well as whether each campus has a full-time nurse or full-time school counselor.
Partnerships with service providers, and best practices: TEA and the Health and Human Services Commission must develop guidelines for school districts for partnering with mental health and substance abuse service providers, and obtaining services through Texas’ medical assistance program. By August 2020, the agencies must also provide a list of recommended best practice-based programs and research-based practices for implementation in elementary through high schools; the list must include programs and practices related to substance abuse intervention, suicide intervention and postvention (activities that reduce the risk of suicide by a person affected by the suicide of another), positive behavior interventions, and positive school climate. Furthermore, suicide prevention programs must include components that provide training on helping students return to school following treatment of a mental health concern or suicide attempt, and school districts must develop related procedures. – Signed by the Governor; effective on 12/1/2019
HB 19 (Authors: Price, Huberty, Senfronia Thompson, Coleman, Greg Bonnen | Sponsor: Watson), Relating to mental health and substance use resources for certain school districts. Local Mental Health Authorities (LMHA’s) must employ a non-physician mental health professional to serve as a mental health and substance use resource for school districts in which the LMHA provides services, and which are being served by a Regional Education Service Center (RESC; these are located throughout Texas to help school districts improve student performance). The mental health professional will serve as a resource for the RESC and the school district by:
- helping personnel understand mental health and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders;
- helping personnel implement initiatives related to mental health or substance use;
- ensuring personnel are aware of best practice-based programs and research-based practices provided for in statute, as well as mental health and substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery programs available in the district or provided by the LMHA or the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to support students and families; and
- providing monthly training related to: mental health first aid; the effects of grief and trauma, and support for children with intellectual or developmental disabilities who suffer from grief or trauma; and effective prevention and intervention programs that help students cope with pressures relating to drug, alcohol, and cigarette use, as well as prescription drug misuse.
Each LMHA that employs or supervises a professional must annually submit a report to HHSC on the outcomes for districts and students resulting from service provision, and HHSC must compile and submit that information to state leadership.
LMHA’s are only required to implement the provisions of this bill if the Legislature appropriates money specifically for that purpose; if not, a LMHA can – but is not required to – implement the bill using other appropriations available for that purpose. – Signed by the Governor; effective on 9/1/2019
HB 65 (Author: Eric Johnson | Sponsor: West), Relating to reporting information regarding public school disciplinary actions. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, each school district must annually report to the Commissioner of Education on out-of-school suspensions; this bill expands on the existing requirements to report on expulsions and Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placements. Specifically, each district must report:
- information identifying each suspended student – including their race, sex, and date of birth – to enable comparison of data to information collected through other reports;
- information indicating the basis for the suspension;
- the number of full or partial days the student was suspended; and
- the number of out-of-school suspensions that were inconsistent with the suspension-related guidelines included in the Student Code of Conduct.
Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/14/2019
HB 548 (Author: Canales | Sponsor: Lucio), Relating to reporting certain information through the Public Education Information Management System. By January 2020, the Commissioner of Education must require each school district and open-enrollment charter school to report information through PEIMS (the Public Education Information Management System) that is disaggregated by campus and grade regarding:
- the number of students required to attend school who fail to do so without an excuse for 10 or more days (or parts of days) within a six-month period in the same school year;
- the number of students for whom the district initiates a truancy prevention measure, required when a student fails to attend school without excuse on three or more days (or parts of days) within a four-week period; and
- the number of parents against whom an attendance officer or other school official has filed a complaint for “parent contributing to nonattendance.”
This bill also includes amended language that requires data to be generated and monitored on the language acquisition of children aged eight or younger who are deaf or hard of hearing, specifically by requiring identification of language assessment protocols that are appropriate for the development and age of each child, and annual gathering and publication of relevant data. – Signed by the Governor; effective on 9/1/2019
HB 906 (Authors: Senfronia Thompson, Phelan, Moody, Greg Bonnen, Coleman | Sponsor: Powell), Relating to the establishment of a collaborative task force to study certain public school mental health services. This bill establishes the Collaborative Task Force on Public School Mental Health Services until December 2025, which must collect data on: the number of students enrolled in each school district and charter school; the number of students receiving state-funded, school-provided services, and the number referred to a mental health provider (outside counselor); the number for whom each school has the resources to provide services; the number transported for an emergency mental health detention; and demographic information for all relevant students (race, ethnicity, gender, special education status, educationally disadvantaged status, and geographic location).
The Task Force must also study and make recommendations regarding mental health services, educator training on providing such services, and the impact of services, including:
- the outcomes and effectiveness of services and training in: improving academic achievement and attendance, reducing student disciplinary actions, and delivering prevention and intervention services to promote early mental health (including preventing substance abuse and suicide, promoting trauma-informed practices and a positive school climate, improving physical and emotional safety and well-being, reducing violence, and reducing suicide rates);
- disparities in demographic data of students receiving services; and
- best practices in implementing the services or training, and replicating them for all schools.
The Task Force must include, among others, parents of students receiving mental health services, a school-based mental health service provider or trainer, a psychiatrist, and a licensed specialist in school psychology. Biennially, the Task Force must issue reports on its activities and any recommendations for legislative or other action. Note: Of state funds allocated to TEA for public school mental health services, the Commissioner can provide up to 10% for purposes of the Task Force. – Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/14/2019
HB 2184 (Authors: Allen, White, Wu, Phelan, Morales | Sponsor: Huffman), Relating to a public school student’s transition from an alternative education program to a regular classroom. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, after an alternative education program (defined as a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, or residential program or facility) determines the date of a student’s release from the program, its administrator must: (1) provide written notice of that date to the student’s parent or parental stand-in, as well as to the administrator of the school to which the student will transition, and (2) provide the school administrator with an assessment of the student’s academic growth while attending the program, as well as the results of any assessment instruments administered to the student.
The school administrator must coordinate the student’s transition to a regular classroom, including assistance and recommendations from school counselors and police, licensed clinical social workers and campus behavior coordinators, and classroom teachers responsible for implementing the student’s personalized transition plan. The assistance must include the personalized transition plan for the student developed by the school administrator with required recommendations for the best educational placement of the student; it can also include:
- recommendations for counseling, behavioral management, or academic assistance with a concentration on the student’s academic or career goals;
- recommendations for assistance in obtaining access to mental health services;
- the provision of information to the student’s parent or stand-in about the process to request a full evaluation of the student for special education services; and
- a regular review of the student’s progress towards academic or career goals.
Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/10/2019
HB 3630 (Authors: Meyer, Mary González, Shaheen | Sponsor: Lucio), Relating to prohibiting the use of certain aversive techniques on students enrolled in public schools. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, a school district, employee, volunteer, or contractor cannot authorize or cause an aversive technique to be applied to a student. An “aversive technique” is intended to reduce the likelihood of a behavior reoccurring by intentionally inflicting significant physical or emotional discomfort or pain.
The term includes a technique or intervention that:
- is designed to cause physical pain (other than corporal punishment), including use of an electric shock or any procedure that involves the use of pressure points or joint locks;
- involves release of a noxious or toxic spray or substance near a student’s face;
- denies sleep, air, food, water, shelter, bedding, physical comfort, supervision, or access to the bathroom;
- ridicules or demeans a student in a manner that adversely affects or endangers his or her learning or mental health or constitutes verbal abuse;
- simultaneously immobilizes a student’s arms and legs;
- impairs breathing;
- restricts circulation;
- secures a student to a stationary object while standing or sitting;
- hinders the student’s ability to communicate;
- involves a chemical restraint;
- utilizes “timeouts” (including isolation through physical barriers) that preclude a student’s involvement and progress in the required curriculum and goals in an individualized education program; or
- deprives a student of one or more senses.
An aversive technique can be used if it complies with the student’s individualized education program or behavior intervention plan. Separately, this bill does not prohibit a teacher from removing a student from class to maintain effective classroom discipline. – Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/14/2019
SB 435 (Author: Nelson | Sponsors: Price, Sheffield, Minjarez, Rose, VanDeaver), Relating to recommendations by local school health advisory councils regarding opioid addiction and abuse education in public schools. Each school district’s local School Health Advisory Council must recommend appropriate grade levels and curriculum for instruction regarding opioid addiction and abuse, and methods of administering an opioid antagonist. – Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 5/31/2019
SB 712 (Author: Lucio | Sponsors: Meyer, Mary González, Shaheen), Relating to prohibiting the use of certain aversive techniques on students enrolled in public schools. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, a school district, employee, volunteer, or contractor cannot authorize or cause an aversive technique to be applied to a student. An “aversive technique” is intended to reduce the likelihood of a behavior reoccurring by intentionally inflicting significant physical or emotional discomfort or pain.
The term includes a technique or intervention that:
- is designed to cause physical pain (other than corporal punishment), including use of an electric shock or any procedure that involves the use of pressure points or joint locks;
- involves release of a noxious or toxic spray or substance near a student’s face;
- denies sleep, air, food, water, shelter, bedding, physical comfort, or access to the bathroom;
- ridicules or demeans a student in a manner that adversely affects or endangers his or her learning or mental health or constitutes verbal abuse;
- simultaneously immobilizes a student’s arms and legs;
- impairs breathing;
- restricts circulation;
- secures a student to a stationary object while standing or sitting;
- hinders the student’s ability to communicate;
- involves a chemical restraint;
- utilizes “timeouts” (including isolation through physical barriers) that preclude a student’s involvement and progress in the required curriculum and goals in an individualized education program; or
- deprives a student of one or more senses.
An aversive technique can be used if it complies with the student’s individualized education program or behavior intervention plan. Separately, this bill does not prohibit a teacher from removing a student from class to maintain effective classroom discipline. – Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/10/2019
SB 1746 (Author: Miles | Sponsors: White, Reynolds, Rose), Relating to the inclusion of certain students as students at risk of dropping out of school. This bill broadens the definition of a “student at risk of dropping out of school” to include a student who is under 26 and has been incarcerated or has had an incarcerated parent or guardian in their lifetime. School districts can provide such students with accelerated instruction or community-based alternative education programs for purposes of dropout prevention and recovery. – Signed by the Governor; effective immediately, 6/2/2019