Unpacking the 89th Legislature: Your Right to Reasonable Working Conditions

As we continue our fight for the Educator's Bill of Rights at the local and state level, we're tracking progress on legislation that supports key pillars of respect, fair compensation, safety, and professional growth for educators and school staff.

Our 2022 Texas Needs Teachers report found that working conditions were even more important than compensation in retaining educators, by an almost 2-to-1 ratio. When the state underfunds local school districts, teachers and staff are saddled with more duties, exacerbating high turnover rates and hiring costs. Ultimately, it's our students' academic and emotional well-being that suffers.

Several bipartisan bills this session offered meaningful steps toward the goals of improving working and learning conditions - while others lay a foundation but need strengthening.

What We Asked for

Let's start by looking at some of the 71 bills filed in alignment with our Educator's Bill of Rights. As a reminder, this legislative agenda was defined by our members in online and in-person drafting sessions in 2024, as well as through member surveys.

Here's a brief look at House Bills (HB) and Senate Bills (SB) on your working conditions that we supported.

Employee Workloads

• HB 3190 (Rep. Drew Darby) would have provided comprehensive improvements to working conditions for educators and school support staff, including a defined workday for educators, evaluations of custodian workloads, and the closing of District of Innovation loopholes on class size.
• HB 1573 and HB 1679 (Rep. Venton Jones) both addressed the workloads of school custodians: one would have required a study of reasonable workloads for custodians and the other would have required school districts to set reasonable workloads to ensure our schools are healthy and safe places to learn and work.
• HB 2243 (Rep. Tom Oliverson) would have created the Texas Commission on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention to build on the work of the Teacher Vacancy Taskforce. After significant improvements were made with educator advocacy, the bill passed both chambers of the Legislature only to be vetoed by the governor.

Adequate Staffing

• HB 1368 (Rep. Venton Jones) would have required a public school to notify parents if a campus does not have a nurse, school counselor, or librarian assigned to the school during all instructional hours.
• SB 1893 (Sen. Tan Parker), HB 362 (Rep. Jon Rosenthal), and HB 3702 (Rep. Terri Leo Wilson) addressed District of Innovation (DOI) exemptions for teacher certification and parents' right to know that their child's teacher is uncertified. Fortunately, HB 2, the major school finance bill, includes prohibitions on DOI exemptions for certified teachers in core subject areas and a requirement to notify parents if their child has an uncertified teacher for 30 consecutive days.
• SB 172 (Sen. José Menéndez) would have required districts to employ a special education liaison, which would reduce the amount of paperwork required of teachers.

Student-Centered Solutions

• HB 3384 (Rep. Alma Allen) would have prevented DOI exemptions from class-size limits and parental notice of classes exceeding those limits.
• SB 558 (Sen. Nathan Johnson) would have established a grant program for schools to be designated as full-service community schools, which provide comprehensive academic, social, and health services for students, students' family members, and community members that result in improved educational outcomes.

Employee Leave & Benefits

• SB 183 (Sen. José Menéndez) would have granted personal leave to a classroom teacher to testify at a public hearing
• HB 2485 (Rep. Hubert Vo) would have granted wellness leave to school employees.
• SB 237 (Sen. Nathan Johnson) would have provided paid parental leave to full-time employees of school districts.
• SB 167 (Sen. José Menéndez) is one of our favorites and would have required each member of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives to serve as a substitute teacher for one day in a school within their district.
• HB 1694 (Rep. Terry Canales) would have allowed school bus drivers and school cafeteria workers to receive unemployment benefits.

What Actually Passed

The fair wage aspects of HB 2 (Rep. Brad Buckley) were discussed in our June 13 Hotline, but HB 2 also includes some measures that directly improve working conditions for educators and were major goals for our Educator's Bill of Rights:

• Targeted investments in high-need areas, including special education and early literacy, providing more resources to serve students
• Provisions for districts to establish "Grow Your Own" residency and apprenticeship programs in collaboration with educator preparation entities to alleviate teacher shortages, helping to reduce class sizes
• Free, full-day pre-K for the children of teachers
• Fee waivers for special education and bilingual certification exams
• An end to District of Innovation exemptions for certified teachers in core subject areas and the requirement to notify parents if their child has an uncertified teacher for 30 consecutive days

Student Behavior

The major discipline bill that passed during the 89^th legislative session was HB 6 (Rep. Jeff Leach), which aims to make student removal easier for teachers to improve working conditions and learning conditions.

In current law, teachers can remove students from the classroom if they are documented repeatedly interfering with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with other students or with the ability of their classmates to learn; or if their behavior is so unruly, disruptive, or abusive that it seriously interferes with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students in the class or with the ability of the student's classmates to learn.

HB 6 will reduce the standard for student removal by allowing a teacher to remove a student for simply "interfering" with classroom instruction or demonstrating unruly, disruptive, or abusive behavior towards another person in the classroom, or bullying. The removal could be based on a single instance and does not require documentation of repeated interference.

The implementation of HB 6 must be closely watched. What is considered "unruly" or "disruptive" is subject to interpretation by each teacher in every classroom in every school district. We remain concerned about the possibility of its inequitable application to students and the possibility that a student who disrupts class once could be permanently removed from that teacher's classroom for the remainder of the school year.

Other details in the bill:

• Requires that in the event of a teacher removal, a teacher, campus behavior coordinator, or another administrator must notify a parent or guardian
• Creates a process to appeal their removal from class, but it is unclear what effect a successful appeal would have
• States that students may not be returned to class until a "return to class plan" has been prepared at a conference with school administrators, the relevant teacher, and the student

For students with disabilities, current protections in law still govern the removal or placement of a student with a disability who receives special education services.

Cellphones

Meanwhile, the school cellphone ban, HB 1481 by Rep. Caroline Fairly, requires school districts to adopt a policy that prohibits students from using cellphones or personal electronic devices during instructional time unless a teacher specifically authorizes the use for instructional purposes.

• Each district will determine its own enforcement procedures.
• Districts may still allow students to use devices during passing periods, lunch, or before and after school, but those decisions are left to local discretion.
• The law applies to all personal devices including smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, similar technology, or any other device capable of transmitting or receiving communications.

What Comes Next

Texas AFT will continue monitoring rulemaking required for bills that passed and pushing lawmakers to go further in realizing the full promise of the Educator's Bill of Rights. Stay tuned to the Hotline as we learn about rulemaking timelines for each bill and ways you can advocate for fair rules to implement new legislation at the state and local levels.

Our members are leading the charge-through testimony, advocacy, and collective action. Stay tuned for more details on our All In campaign as we prepare for the 2026 election cycle and the 2027 legislative session. We also encourage you to keep a close eye on the special session coming up this summer; the agenda currently does not address education issues, but Gov. Abbott could add additional items at any time to the special session call).

Between federal government actions and the 89^th Legislature, much will have changed for pre-K-12 and higher education employees and students this fall. We're here to help you make sense of it all and understand what you're walking into this coming school year.

Join Texas AFT for three Summer School virtual sessions , unpacking your need-to-know information:

• July 12: Federal education and policy changes
• July 29: Legislative updates for Texas higher education
• Aug. 12: Legislative updates for Texas pre-K-12 schools

Register for these 1-hour sessions on Mobilize.