Bill Text: TX HB2126 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to information reported through the Public Education Information Management System and to parents regarding disciplinary measures or restraint used by a public school.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-05-10 - Placed on General State Calendar [HB2126 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB2126-Comm_Sub.html

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88R22061 AMF-D
By: Goodwin H.B. No. 2126
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2126:
By: Thompson of Harris C.S.H.B. No. 2126

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to information reported through the Public Education
Information Management System and to parents regarding
disciplinary measures or restraint used by a public school.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 37.0011(b), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) If the board of trustees of an independent school
district adopts a policy under Section 37.001(a)(8) or the
governing body of an open-enrollment charter school adopts a policy
under Section 12.131(a) under which corporal punishment is
permitted as a method of student discipline:
(1) not later than the beginning of each school year,
the district or school must provide to each student's parent,
guardian, or other person having lawful control over the student
for whom the district or school has an e-mail address a notice by
e-mail that includes:
(A) a statement of that person's right to
prohibit the use of corporal punishment against the student;
(B) the district's or school's policy on the use
of corporal punishment and the definition of corporal punishment
under Subsection (a);
(C) the procedure, in a readily understandable
format, for the parent, guardian, or other person having lawful
control over the student to prohibit the use of corporal punishment
against the student; and
(D) a conspicuous statement that, as provided by
Subsection (c), a new written, signed statement must be submitted
by a student's parent, guardian, or other person having lawful
control over the student to the district or school each school year
to prohibit the use of corporal punishment against the student
during that school year; and
(2) [,] a district or school educator may use corporal
punishment to discipline a student during a school year unless the
student's parent or guardian or other person having lawful control
over the student has previously provided a written, signed
statement prohibiting the use of corporal punishment as a method of
student discipline for that school year.
SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 37, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 37.024 to read as follows:
Sec. 37.024. REQUIRED PEIMS REPORTING OF DISCIPLINARY
MEASURES AND RESTRAINT; REPORT. (a) Each school district and
open-enrollment charter school shall include in the district's or
school's Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS)
report the total number, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender,
status as receiving special education services, and status as being
in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective
Services, of, as applicable:
(1) incidents of uses of corporal punishment, if the
district or school permits the use of corporal punishment;
(2) incidents of uses of restraint, as defined by
Section 37.0021;
(3) reports to local law enforcement under Section
37.015 or 37.0151;
(4) suspensions of students by the district or school,
disaggregated by the number of students who received:
(A) only one out-of-school suspension during the
year;
(B) more than one out-of-school suspension
during the year; and
(C) one or more in-school suspensions;
(5) changes in school placement, including placement
in a juvenile justice alternative education program or a
disciplinary alternative education program;
(6) discretionary and mandatory expulsions, including
expulsions arising under a zero-tolerance policy adopted by the
district or school;
(7) citations for Class C misdemeanors;
(8) arrests; and
(9) referrals to a truancy court.
(b) The agency shall:
(1) aggregate the data required under Subsection (a)
by state, region, district or school, and campus in an annual report
that is readily understandable;
(2) make the report publicly available on the agency's
Internet website; and
(3) provide the report to each school district and
open-enrollment charter school.
(c) Each school district and open-enrollment charter school
shall provide annually to each student's parent, guardian, or other
person having lawful control over a student enrolled in the
district or school for whom the district or school has an e-mail
address a notice by e-mail that includes:
(1) a copy of the report under Subsection (b);
(2) a summary that compares the aggregate data
collected under Subsection (a) for the district or school campus
and for the state, region, and other campuses in the district or the
geographic area served by the school; and
(3) the Internet website link to the report under
Subsection (b) on the agency's Internet website.
(d) The commissioner shall adopt rules as necessary to
implement this section, including rules to ensure compliance with
the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C.
Section 1232g).
SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with the 2023-2024
school year.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2023.