BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 473

By: Hull

Youth Health & Safety, Select

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed S.B. 11, a comprehensive school safety and mental health bill that, among other things, provided for the establishment of a threat assessment and safe and supportive school team in each public school district. The team is tasked with conducting threat assessments that include assessing and reporting individuals who make threats of violence or exhibit harmful, threatening, or violent behavior and gathering and analyzing data to determine the level of risk and appropriate intervention. If a student is determined to pose a serious risk of violence to themselves or others, the superintendent must immediately notify the student's parent or person standing in parental relation to the student. Parents, who often have vital information regarding their child, should be notified in all instances of a threat assessment being conducted on their child and provided the opportunity to participate or provide information. H.B. 473 seeks to require a threat assessment and safe and supportive school team to notify the parent or person standing in parental relation to the student before conducting a threat assessment and provide them the opportunity to participate or provide information to the team.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 473 amends the Education Code to require a threat assessment and safe and supportive school team established by a public school district's board of trustees to do the following:

· before conducting a threat assessment of a student, notify the parent of or person standing in parental relation to the student regarding the assessment;

· in conducting the assessment, provide an opportunity for the parent or person to participate in the assessment, either in person or remotely, and submit to the team information regarding the student; and

· after completing the assessment, provide to the parent or person the team's findings and conclusions regarding the student.

The bill applies beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2023.