SBEC discusses teacher prep programs, changes to investigating misconduct

The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met Dec. 4-5 to discuss implementation of legislation from the 89th Texas Legislative Session.

Teacher prep programs

Much of their work in the past few meetings has been consumed by significant changes to the state's teacher preparation framework. House Bill 2, the wide-ranging education bill from 2025, includes stricter requirements on how long an uncertified teacher may teach before obtaining certification, investments in different teacher preparation pipelines, and some changes to the classes of certificates available to educators.

SBEC's most time-consuming responsibility has been determining the rules for those new investments in teacher preparation. The new program is collectively called the Preparing and Retaining Educators through Partnership Program. PREP provides financial resources for different aspects of teacher preparation, including Grow Your Own programs that support non-teachers who already work in schools looking to make the jump to teaching, pre-service programs like universities and alternative certification programs that train new teachers, and teacher mentors who support novice teachers in their first few years in the classroom.

TCTA testified on rules regarding the mentorship allotment to ensure that teachers must agree to a mentorship role; an earlier version of the proposed rule allowed for the possibility that teachers could be assigned this duty.

SB 12 and SB 571

In addition to HB 2, two other bills require SBEC rulemaking: SB 12 and SB 571.

SB 12 allows SBEC to issue sanctions if a school district employee attempts to encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from the child's parent.

SB 571 creates the Temporary Suspension Committee within SBEC. The committee is charged with issuing temporary suspensions of educators' certificates in certain circumstances.

Typically, if there is a complaint against an educator, TEA investigates whether the complaint is credible or not and, if it is found to be credible, begins proceedings in administrative court. After the court proceedings conclude, SBEC makes the final decision on whether or not to sanction the educator's certificate based on information from the proceedings.

SB 571 reverses the order of a typical investigation if an educator is arrested for certain violent or sexual crimes or if they are determined to be an "imminent threat to the public welfare," a term that SBEC will define in a future meeting. In these cases, the Temporary Suspension Committee votes on whether to temporarily suspend the educator's certificate while the remainder of the process is carried out.

In recent years, the volume of complaints against educators has significantly increased and TEA Investigations has experienced staffing difficulties, resulting in an ever-growing backlog of cases that can take years to resolve. TEA follows a prioritization procedure to determine which cases need to be investigated first, and this can result in some cases being pushed to the bottom of the pile again and again.

TCTA testified to the State Board of Educator Certification about the increasingly lengthy investigation timelines and how that impacts educators seeking to renew their certificates and those who are looking for jobs in new districts, but are hindered by an "under investigation" tag on their certificate. While the staffing conditions at TEA may remedy themselves in time, these yearslong investigations have a tangible effect on educators now.

TCTA also testified on SBEC's discussion of how to define "imminent threat." Given the lengthy investigative timelines, TCTA encouraged the board to adopt a maximum time limit on an imminent threat determination after which point the case would be relegated to the typical investigation process instead.

These rules will be voted on at the next SBEC meeting in February. TCTA will continue to monitor the implementation of these rules to ensure they offer appropriate due process protections to educators.