BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3256

By: Harless

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

School employees must report all manner of potential offenses, like bullying or sexual assaults, that may have been perpetrated on students. In addition, these employees make everyday decisions that may be unpopular and make them a target for retaliation. While most schools have the resources to protect the employees at the school campus or other facilities, due to the public availability of the employees' home address information, these employees and their families are still vulnerable outside of the protection provided at schools. C.S.H.B. 3256 seeks to correct this deficiency and provide public school employees the opportunity to restrict public availability of their information.

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

C.S.H.B. 3256 amends the Tax Code to make certain home address information contained in appraisal records confidential for a full-time employee of a public school district.

C.S.H.B. 3256 amends the Transportation Code to require the Department of Public Safety to establish a procedure, on a showing of a license holder's full-time employment at a public school, to omit the residence address of the license holder on the license holder's license and to include, instead of that address, the street address of the district.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3256 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute changes the applicability of the bill's provisions from applying to a teacher or principal employed at a public school, as in the original, to applying to any full-time employee of a public school.