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House Bill 3 |
House Author: Burrows et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-23 |
Senate Sponsor: Nichols et al. |
House Bill 3 amends the Education Code to set out provisions relating to the development, implementation, and funding of public school safety and security requirements. Among other provisions, the bill requires an armed security officer to be present at each campus of a public school district and open‑enrollment charter school and requires each district and charter school to ensure compliance with all school facilities standards adopted by the commissioner of education related to safety and security, with certain exceptions for good cause. The bill also requires mental health training for certain district employees on youth issues that may pose a threat to school safety, includes a child's disciplinary record and any threat assessment among the records required to be provided to the applicable district on the child's enrollment or transfer, and provides for a district's authority to contract with licensed security contractors for security personnel.
House Bill 3 sets out the duties of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in monitoring district and charter school implementation and operation of safety and security requirements, including the duty to establish an office of school safety and security, requires that office to establish regional school safety review teams, and requires regional education service centers to provide assistance to those teams and to act as a school safety resource for districts and charter schools. With regard to a district's annual school safety allotment, the bill establishes a minimum amount for the allotment and provides for a district's use of allotment funds for the employment of school safety personnel and for the purchase of school safety technology from vendors approved by TEA and the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC). The bill also authorizes a district to use bond proceeds for school safety compliance. Additionally, the bill provides for the following:
· revisions to requirements for the multihazard emergency operations plan of a school district, charter school, or public junior college district;
· the sharing of school safety‑related data between the TxSSC and TEA;
· the assignment of a conservator for school districts or charter schools that fail to comply with school safety and security requirements;
· a district's notification to students' parents regarding violent activity at a district facility or district‑sponsored activity and the establishment of a procedure for a student to report concerning behavior exhibited by another student for assessment by an appropriate school employee;
· requirements for providing an emergency response map and a walk‑through of each district campus and charter school building to law enforcement and emergency responders;
· the routine review and update of standards for instructional facilities by the TxSSC and commissioner; and
· mandatory semiannual meetings regarding school safety in certain counties.