Bill Text: TX SB117 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to required immunizations for children and primary or secondary school students.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-11-12 - Filed [SB117 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-SB117-Introduced.html

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89R2448 LRM-D
By: Hall S.B. No. 117

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to required immunizations for children and primary or
secondary school students.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 81.023(a) and (c), Health and Safety
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) The executive commissioner may recommend to the
legislature immunizations to include on the list of immunizations
required [department shall develop immunization requirements] for
children under Section 161.004.
(c) The department shall cooperate with the State Board of
Education in [formulating and] implementing immunization
requirements for students admitted to public or private primary or
secondary schools.
SECTION 2. Section 161.004(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) Every child in the state shall be immunized against
diphtheria, mumps, poliomyelitis, rubella, rubeola, and tetanus
[vaccine preventable diseases caused by infectious agents] in
accordance with the [immunization] schedule prescribed [adopted]
in department rules. The executive commissioner may not require
immunizations against any additional diseases for students
admitted to a public or private primary or secondary school.
SECTION 3. Sections 38.001(a) and (b-1), Education Code,
are amended to read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), each [Each]
student shall be fully immunized against the diseases listed in
Section 161.004, Health and Safety Code [diphtheria, rubeola,
rubella, mumps, tetanus, and poliomyelitis, except as provided by
Subsection (c)].
(b-1) Each year, the Department of State Health Services
shall prepare a list of the immunizations required under Section
161.004, Health and Safety Code, [this section] for admission to
public schools [and of any additional immunizations the department
recommends for school-age children]. The department shall prepare
the list in English and Spanish and make the list available in a
manner that permits a school district to easily post the list on the
district's Internet website as required by Section 38.019.
SECTION 4. Section 38.019(a), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) A school district that maintains an Internet website
shall post prominently on the website:
(1) a list, in English and Spanish, of:
(A) the immunizations required for admission to
public school in accordance with [by rules of the Department of
State Health Services adopted under] Section 38.001; and
(B) [any immunizations or vaccines recommended
for public school students by the Department of State Health
Services; and
[(C)] health clinics in the district that offer
the influenza vaccine, to the extent those clinics are known to the
district; and
(2) a link to the page on the Department of State
Health Services Internet website that provides [where a person may
obtain] information relating to the procedures for claiming an
exemption from the immunization requirements of Section 38.001.
SECTION 5. Section 42.043(b), Human Resources Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(b) The department shall require that each child at an
appropriate age have a test for tuberculosis and be immunized
against the diseases listed in Section 161.004, Health and Safety
Code [diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, mumps, rubella, rubeola,
invasive pneumococcal disease, and hepatitis A and against any
other communicable disease as recommended by the Department of
State Health Services]. The immunization must be effective on the
date of first entry into the facility. However, a child may be
provisionally admitted if the required immunizations have begun and
are completed as rapidly as medically feasible.
SECTION 6. Section 38.001(b), Education Code, as amended by
Chapters 43 (H.B. 1098) and 94 (H.B. 1059), Acts of the 80th
Legislature, Regular Session, 2007, is repealed.
SECTION 7. The changes in law made by this Act to Chapter
38, Education Code, apply starting with the 2025-2026 school year.
SECTION 8. 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, 2025.