BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1655

By: Schatzline

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that in recent years, parents across Texas have raised serious concerns about public schools encouraging or facilitating a child's transition in gender identity—often without the consent or knowledge of their families. The bill author has further informed the committee that many families feel these interventions disrupt the parent-child relationship and undermine parental rights and there is concern about the long-term emotional and psychological consequences for children pushed into social transitioning at a young age. C.S.H.B. 1655 seeks to address these issues by providing for a prohibition against the employees of a school district or open-enrollment charter school from assisting a student with social transitioning.

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. 1655 amends the Education Code to require a public school district's board of trustees to adopt a policy prohibiting a district employee from assisting an enrolled student with social transitioning, including by providing any information about social transitioning or providing guidelines intended to assist a person with social transitioning. The bill makes this requirement applicable to an open-enrollment charter school as though the governing body of the school were the board of trustees of a district. The bill defines "social transitioning" as a person's transition from the person's biological sex at birth to the opposite biological sex through the adoption of a different name, different pronouns, or other expressions of gender that deny or encourage a denial of the person's biological sex at birth.

C.S.H.B. 1655 authorizes a parent of a student enrolled in the district or a district employee to report to the board of trustees a suspected violation of the policy against assistance with social transitioning. The bill requires the board of trustees to investigate any suspected violation and determine whether the violation occurred and to immediately report the violation to the commissioner of education if it determines that a district employee has assisted an enrolled student with social transitioning.

C.S.H.B. 1655 authorizes the attorney general to file a suit against a district for injunctive relief to prevent or restrain a violation of the bill's provisions or a civil penalty in an amount determined by the court for each violation.

C.S.H.B. 1655 applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1655 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.

The introduced defined "social transitioning" as a person's transition from the gender identity associated with the person's biological sex assigned at birth to an alternative gender identity through the adoption of expressions of gender, including adopting clothing and hairstyles, that are typically associated with the biological sex opposite of the person's biological sex assigned at birth and intended to communicate the person's alternative gender identity, whereas the substitute defines that term as a person's transition from the person's biological sex at birth to the opposite biological sex through the adoption of expressions of gender that deny or encourage a denial of the person's biological sex at birth.

The substitute does not include provisions that appeared in the introduced that do the following:

· required the commissioner of education, if the commissioner finds on an appeal that a district has violated the bill's provisions, or if a district's board of trustees notifies the commissioner about a violation of the district's policy, to withhold funding provided by statutory provisions governing the following for the school year during which the violation occurred:

o assistance with instructional facilities and payment of existing debt;

o the foundation school program; and

o options for local revenue levels in excess of entitlement; and

· authorized the commissioner to adjust the district's entitlement to funding under those statutory provisions for subsequent school years as necessary to recover any state funding already paid to the district for the school year in which the violation occurred.

The substitute includes a provision absent from the introduced authorizing the attorney general to file a suit against a school district for injunctive relief to prevent or restrain a violation of the bill's provisions or a civil penalty in an amount determined by the court for each violation.