Texas House OKs bill that gives schools more latitude to discipline students

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The Texas House on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill that would make it easier for schools to suspend their homeless and youngest students. The proposal included a handful of revisions that seem to respond to calls to incorporate more guidelines so schools don’t unintentionally sweep up a wide range of students.

House Bill 6 would allow schools to discipline all students with out-of-school suspensions – requiring them to stay off school grounds – when they engage in “repeated and significant” classroom disruption or threaten the health and safety of other children. The bill would reverse state laws from 2017 and 2019, effectively expanding when homeless students and children in pre-K through second grade can be suspended.

Most House Republicans signed on as co-authors of the bill early in session to show support.

On the House floor Tuesday, lawmakers made a last-minute amendment over how schools use disciplinary alternative education programs, learning settings that can be used as an alternative to suspensions and expulsion. Students who attack teachers or make “terroristic” threats would have to go to one of those programs for at least 30 days.

At the same time, the bill would repeal a current law that requires schools to send students who vaped to alternative education settings. The bill would also let schools teach students in alternative education programs remotely — a mode of instruction that was shown to contribute to learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The version of the bill that the House voted on Tuesday includes changes that reflect concerns made in hours of testimony during a House public education committee hearing last month. For example, when students with disabilities are involved in classroom disruption, “knowledgeable professionals” would now have to help make decisions about how to intervene. Rep. Jeff Leach, the bill’s author, also added language to the bill that would require teachers to employ classroom management techniques and prove that students are a threat before removing students from the classroom .

The bill is an effort to respond to a rise of student violence in classrooms after the COVID-19 pandemic, which school leaders say is making working conditions untenable for teachers. The teaching profession has been experiencing high rates of turnover across the state.

Some Democrats tried but failed to add amendments saying students need resources like psychological services. Leach remained firm as he shot down those efforts.

“Kids are going to be kids, but I will tell you that it is not compassionate for kids not to have consequences,” he said during a heated discussion on the House floor. “For a student that comes into a classroom and threatens a teacher … again and again and again … the compassionate and merciful thing to do is to punish them.”

He had the support of some Democrats, like Dallas Rep. John Bryant, who said lawmakers ought to bring concerns about inadequate school resources when the House’s school finance bill is taken up, which is expected to happen Wednesday.

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