New Laws to Hit Texas Public Schools This Year

As several schools around the Lone Star state have had the first school bell ring, or are about to welcome back their students within the next couple weeks, this new school year brings with it some major changes. New laws have been passed in Texas that will affect public schools this year.

Nine new laws related to Texas public education will go into effect on Sept. 1:

House Bill 2 designates $8.5 billion to go toward public education funding. The money can be used for educator preparation, staff salaries, safety requirements and early childhood and special education.

House Bill 27 requires public high school students to take a single half-credit course on personal financial literacy.

House Bill 1481, bans the use of “personal wireless communication devices” during school hours. Previously, it was optional for school districts to enact this ban, but now they’ll have to comply. Cell phones are the primary target of this new law, but it extends to personal laptops, tablets and other computer-based devices. “Classrooms must designate a secure, out-of-sight area” to hold these devices during instruction, according to the bill.

Senate Bill 10 requiring all public elementary and secondary school classrooms to display a poster or framed copy of the Protestant Ten Commandments. The display must be 16 inches wide by 20 inches in length, with the text being “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom in which the poster or framed copy is displayed.” It’s worthing nothing the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in July to block the enactment of this law, citing it violates the First Amendment’s protections related to religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

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Senate Bill 11 allows for schools to designate time for prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts. School boards will have to vote on whether the time will be designated, and consent forms are required for those who wish to participate.

Senate Bi l l 12 bans Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives in public schools. It also bans the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation-related topics in schools and requires parents to opt their children into sex education.

Senate Bill 13 allows for parents to decide what kind of library materials their students can and cannot read. It gives parents and school boards the power over school librarians to remove any materials they deem necessary. It allows for 50 parents or 10% of a school district’s parents, whichever number is less, in order to create a committee to oversee these decisions.

Senate Bill 314 bans several food additives in school lunches, specifically in free or reduced school lunch programs and the breakfast program. The list of banned ingredients includes brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, azodicarbonamide, butylated hydroxyanisole, red dye 3 and titanium dioxide.

Senate Bill 965 grants public school employees the “right to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty.” This right cannot be “infringed on by the district or school or another state government entity” unless its to “further a compelling state interest.”