Legislators’ main responsibility each biennium is to pass the state’s budget for the following two years. This session, lawmakers agreed to a $248.6 billion budget, which represents a 5.2 percent decrease over the previous biennium. General Revenue was budgeted at $116.3 billion, a 5.5 increase from the previous budget, and $46.5 of state funds were budgeted for public education, a 4.5 increase. 

The budget maintains funding granted by the previous session’s HB 3, with the basic allotment remaining at $6,160 per student, the transportation allotment at $1 per mile, and the safety allotment at $9.72 per student. However, the budget does fund enrollment growth. It appropriates $30 million annually for supplemental special education services and instructional materials, but also reduced funding for the New Instructional Facilities Allotment (NIFA) by the same amount ($30 million annually).

Streamlines training and continuing education requirements for school employees, creating more opportunities for educators to select training that is more meaningful to their particular roles. It eliminates many training requirements, instead giving districts the ability to select what the type and frequency of training that best suit its employees. 

In order to address recent court decisions that prevented the Commissioner of Education’s ability to intervene for school districts with low-performing campuses, SB 1365 provides clarifications when it comes to the state’s accountability system. Most notably, D accountability ratings will be reported as “Needs Improvement,” with three consecutive such ratings triggering the same sections as a campus with an F rating. It also provides procedures to ensure fairness for districts during TEA investigations, including holding full hearings for TEA sanctions. District will also be allowed to know the identity of TEA witnesses with access to all evidence, and have authority to appeal commissioner decisions. For 2020-21, campuses that were previously rated D or F are subject to optional performance reviews; and for 2021-22, campuses will receive ratings of A, B, C, or Not Rated, while schools attempt to recover from the pandemic’s interruptions. 

In light of learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents or guardians may elect for their student to repeat a grade or course for the 2021-22 school year. For grades PreK-8, a parent/guardian may elect for a student to repeat the grade from the previous school year, or enter Pre-K or Kindergarten for the first time if the student would have been eligible for one of those respective grades prior to 2020-21 and elected not to attend. For high school, a parent/guardian may elect for a student to repeat any course in which the student was enrolled the previous school year, but does not apply if a student met all requirements for graduation. Provisions for repeating grades 4-8 or retaking high school courses expire September 1, 2022. 

Districts will be required to limit Pre-Kindergarten class sizes to 22 students beginning with the 2021-22 school year. 

School districts may allow home-schooled students to participate in UIL activities and the UIL may not prohibit such participation. Such students must still demonstrate grade-level academic proficiency on national standardized tests.

HB 999 allows special individual graduation committees (IGCs) to determine that a student is qualified to graduate without considering performance on end-of-course exams if the student is a senior during the 2020-21 school year. Meanwhile, HB 1603 extends IGCs and makes them permanent in law as an alternative to high school graduation requirements for students who have failed to pass all of their five required EOC exams. 

HB 3, passed during the 86th legislative session, represented a massive overhaul of Texas school financing. With HB 1525, legislators attempted to address issues that have developed over the past two years and clarify any ambiguities. It was a dense bill that addressed a number of topics, including funding to address learning loss because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, an allotment was created for the next two school years to distribute federal relief funds. It also requires districts maintain salary increases that were provided before the pandemic. The bill included new requirements about access to School Health Advisory Councils and requirements for issuing notice and gathering consent regarding human sexuality instruction. Another inclusion requires that school districts accept donations from PTAs to fund supplemental educational staff positions at the school for which the donation was made. 

Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, assessment instruments are required to be administered electronically, unless otherwise provided by a rule from the Commissioner of Education. Funds from the Instructional Materials and Technology Allotment are now allowed to be used to purchase the services, equipment, and technology infrastructure to ensure internet connectivity and adequate bandwidth, as well as pay for training employees in the electronic administration of assessments. The Commissioner must assess school technology needs and provide a cost estimate to the State Board of Education. 

Whlie lawmakers did not pass any new legislation that would fund the extension of delivering education remotely, the Texas Commission on Virtual Education will be created to study and develop recommendations on the delivery of virtual education under the Foundation School Program. The Commission is modeled after the Texas Commission on Public School Finance, and is tasked with delivering a report to the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023. 

Though it became known colloquially and in the media as the “Anti-Critical Race Theory Bill,” the legislation makes no direct mention of the academic study. HB 3979 does prohibit teachers from being compelled to discuss a particular currency event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs, and requires that teachers choosing to discuss such a topic do so without giving deference to any one perspective. Among other provisions, schools and teachers are prohibited from requiring or awarding credit for a student’s political activism or involvement in an internship, practicum, or activity involving social or public policy advocacy. Schools are also prohibited from requiring employees to participate in training or accept funding from organizations that promote any form of race or sex stereotyping or blame on the basis of race or sex. 

The State Board of Education is required to adopt TEKS that develop students’ civic knowledge, including the foundations of the American experiment in self-government, the history and traditions of civics in the U.S.; the structure, function and processing of government institutions at the federal, state, adn local levels; and an understanding of the Founding documents of the U.S.

Effective beginning with the 2021-22 school year, the bill eliminates the requirement that a student pass the third, fifth, or eighth-grade assessments to be promoted to the next grade. Schools must establish accelerated learning committees for each student who did not perform satisfactorily on one of those grade level math or reading exams, rather than forming grade placement committees. However, schools are prohibited from pulling students from recess to participate in accelerated instruction. The following year, such students must also be placed with a Master, Exemplary, or Recognized-certified teacher, and in some instances, parents will have the ability to choose the student’s teacher the following year.