BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1537

By: Howard

Youth Health & Safety, Select

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Adverse childhood experiences, such as from trauma, can significantly influence student performance. Trauma can inhibit young people's capacity to emotionally regulate, communicate, comprehend, and recall. According to the Texas Education Agency, in any random class of 24 students, nearly half of the class will have experienced at least one traumatic event. C.S.H.B. 1537 seeks to ensure that educators handle students that have been through traumatic experiences with care and provides for handle with care notices from law enforcement agencies to public school districts and school personnel. This legislation is meant to serve as an invisible hand to ensure behavioral awareness among educators rather than an active intervention.

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 rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the State Board for Educator Certification in SECTION 3 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1537 establishes the intent of the legislature that handle with care notices submitted and received under the bill's provisions lead to greater understanding of and noninterventional care for students in public schools in Texas who have experienced a traumatic event but do not result in active interference with or the singling out of the student.

C.S.H.B. 1537 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a law enforcement agency that determines, in the course of providing law enforcement services, that a public school student has experienced a traumatic event to submit a handle with care notice to the public school district superintendent or other designated school employee at the school at which the student is enrolled. The handle with care notice must include, if known, the student's name, age, and grade level and the school at which the student is enrolled. The bill requires a law enforcement agency to submit the notices using an electronic system that automatically sends a copy of the notice to the regional education service center serving the student's school.

C.S.H.B. 1537 requires a superintendent or other designated school employee who receives the notice to immediately provide a copy of the handle with care notice to all instructional and support personnel who have responsibility for supervision of the student who is the subject of the notice. The bill makes information contained in the notice confidential and exempt from disclosure except as provided by the bill, other state law, or federal law and requires all school personnel who receive a copy of the notice to keep that information confidential. The bill requires a law enforcement agency to ensure that law enforcement officers and other agency employees receive appropriate training regarding a handle with care notice, including by requiring appropriate agency personnel to attend the handle with care notice training course established under the bill.

C.S.H.B. 1537 establishes that a traumatic event includes the following:

· the arrest of an individual who resides with a student;

· the execution of a search warrant at a student's residence;

· an overdose of alcohol or of a controlled substance by an individual who resides with a student;

· suicide or attempted suicide committed by an individual who resides with a student;

· an incident involving family violence;

· an incident of assault or sexual assault;

· a severe motor vehicle accident that causes bodily injury or death;

· a mass shooting;

· a student's forced displacement from the student's residence;

· the death of an individual who resides with the student or another incident that could be expected to cause the student to be affected by grief;

· a fire that causes severe property damage or bodily injury or death; or

· any other event that a peace officer responding to or taking a report regarding the event has reason to believe will negatively impact a student's ability to succeed in school.

C.S.H.B. 1537 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish and maintain a one-hour training course regarding handle with care notices for district or open-enrollment charter school employees who have responsibility for the supervision of students as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date. The training course must provide information on the implementation of procedures relating to handle with care notices, including appropriate methods of monitoring and responding to a student who is the subject of a handle with care notice. The bill requires each district or charter school to ensure that appropriate personnel complete the training course. The bill requires the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to propose rules allowing an educator to receive credit toward the educator's continuing education requirements for completion of the course.

C.S.H.B. 1537 amends the Occupations Code to require the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE), as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to establish and maintain a one-time training program for peace officers and other employees of law enforcement agencies that provides information on the implementation of procedures relating to handle with care notices.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1537 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

With respect to the provision, which appears in both the substitute and the introduced, that establishes the events that are traumatic events for purposes of a handle with care notice from a law enforcement agency regarding certain public school students who witnessed or otherwise experienced the traumatic event, the substitute, as follows:

· does not include an incident involving the Department of Family and Protective Services as such an event, as provided in the introduced;

· includes the death of an individual who resides with the student or another incident that could be expected to cause the student to be affected by grief as such an event, which was not in the introduced;

· includes any other event that a peace officer responding to or taking a report regarding the event has reason to believe will negatively impact the student's ability to succeed in school, whereas the introduced included any other event that may negatively impact the student's ability to succeed in school without specification as to the peace officer's belief regarding the impact; and

· does not include the requirement, which was in the introduced, for a handle with care notice submitted by a law enforcement agency to include a brief description of the traumatic event.

Whereas both the substitute and the introduced require a law enforcement agency to submit handle with care notices using an electronic system that automatically sends to the regional education service center serving the school at which the student who is the subject of the notice is enrolled, the substitute does not include, as the introduced did, as a feature of the electronic system that the system store the number of notices sent and the zip code from which each notice was sent.

The substitute and introduced both require TEA to establish and maintain a one-hour training course regarding handle with care notices for school district or open enrollment charter school employees who have responsibility for the supervision of students, but the substitute includes a requirement, which is not in the introduced, for the SBEC to propose rules, as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, allowing an educator to receive credit toward continuing education requirements for completion of the handle with care notice training course.

The substitute and the introduced both require TCOLE to establish and maintain a handle with care notice training program for peace officers and other employees of law enforcement agencies, but they differ as follows:

· the introduced required a one-hour training program for such officers and employees; but

· the substitute requires a one-time training program for such officers and employees.

The substitute includes a provision, which is not in the introduced, establishing legislative intent regarding the handle with care notices submitted and received under the bill's provisions.