(Texas Scorecard) – With the governor’s priority school choice legislation checked off their list, state senators are moving on to other proposals designed to empower Texas parents.
The Texas Senate’s Committee on Education K-16 met last week to consider nearly a dozen measures relating to parental rights in public education.
Several of the proposed measures were passed by the Senate last session but died in the Texas House.
One such measure, Senate Bill 400 by State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R–Brenham), would require parental consent for any psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted on a student by a school district employee.
A similar bill passed the Senate last session but died on the House calendar.
“No counseling, screening, assessment, or other mental health intervention, test, or examination should be done without parental consent,” conservative activist and Gillespie County talk show host Matt Long told the committee during public testimony.
Long said he was concerned about his local school district in Fredericksburg offering students counseling on topics including “depression, sexual orientation, eating disorders, parents, brothers, sisters, death in the family, AIDS, anxiety, peer pressure, suicide, STDs, culture, heritage, dating, and much more.”
“Each of these is a serious matter. Each of these calls for parental involvement. Some of these issues can get someone detained and transported to a psychiatric hospital,” he added.
Senate Bill 112 by State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood) would require written parental consent for all students’ surveys and screenings unless they are mandatory for special education, as well as allow parents access to all their child’s written and digital school records.
Senate Bill 371 by State Sen. Donna Campbell (R–Bulverde) would require parental approval for a student’s participation in human sexuality instruction in public schools.
A temporary “opt-in” law expired in August 2024 after the House failed to pass identical legislation filed by Campbell last session to make mandatory parental consent for sex ed permanent.
Conservative education advocate Deborah Simmons told the committee she “enthusiastically” supports SB 371 because it protects school districts and encourages parents to review the curriculum.
“Opt-in is good for students, good for parents, good for districts, and good for Texas,” she testified to the committee.
State Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney) introduced several measures during the hearing, including a proposed constitutional amendment affirming a parent’s right to direct their child’s education.
According to Paxton, Senate Joint Resolution 12 “does not alter, remove or create new parental rights in Texas law. It simply makes existing parental rights that are recognized in Texas law a part of the Bill of Rights in the Texas Constitution.”
It’s well established in both Texas and U.S. Supreme Court precedent that parents are the ultimate decision-makers regarding their child’s education. In choosing professional educators to facilitate their child’s education, parents do not cede their fundamental right to educate their child.
We have long acknowledged in Texas that our rights come from God and that government simply recognizes these rights. Adding these parental rights in our Texas statute to the Texas Constitution strengthens and clarifies these rights.
The same item by Paxton passed the Senate last session with bipartisan support but failed to get a hearing in the House.
Paxton’s Senate Bill 204 would direct the Texas Education Agency to create an online handbook on parental rights in education and to work with the State Board of Education to develop parental rights training for school board members.
She said the handbook would list the rights in one central location.
Senate Bill 609 by Paxton would require school districts to comply with legally required policies, closing a “loophole” that allows trustees to adopt policies but not adhere to them—although the measure does not impose any penalties for noncompliance.
Yet another Paxton proposal, Senate Bill 686, would permit students to transfer to any public school that has capacity available and prohibits districts from charging those students tuition.
The same measure filed by Paxton last session passed the Senate with bipartisan support but died in the House.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), who chairs the Education K-16 Committee, proposed two measures during Thursday’s hearing, Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 1565.
Both measures would prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Texas public schools.
“This legislation is a direct response to growing concerns from parents across the state,” said Creighton. “Right now, school districts are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on DEI initiatives that divide students by race, gender, and sexual orientation, rather than treating them all individually and as individuals. These programs are not just inappropriate, they contradict our values, and in some cases, they violate state and federal law.”
“While parents are being told their schools are underfunded, our staffs uncovered millions of dollars spent currently on DEI staff alone,” he added.
We have to ask ourselves, when did we decide that taxpayer-funded classrooms should be places for political activism instead of education?
Creighton’s SB 1565 also reforms the local grievance process that parents are required to follow when filing complaints against their school district.
The measure sets a timeline for districts to resolve grievances, allows parents to appeal certain grievances to a hearing examiner appointed by the TEA, and requires a superintendent to appear before the SBOE if the TEA commissioner adopts a hearing examiner’s ruling against a district in at least five grievances.
Senate Bill 813 by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola) also proposes reforming the parental complaint process by creating “grievance boards” in each education service center region that would have concurrent jurisdiction with the TEA to hear certain appeals.
Texas Education 911, a grassroots group that advocates for parental rights in education, testified in favor of SJR 12 and Senate Bills 12, 112, 371, 400, 609, 813, and 1565.
“We are dealing with something called organizational betrayal,” testified Texas Education 911 leader Aileen Blachowski.
“Parents are increasingly distrusting what’s happening [in public schools] because we don’t have our voices heard,” she said. “What the parents of Texas really want is, they want fair play, they want the rule of law to apply in school, and they want it to apply to themselves and to their children.”
Blachowski said parents want decisions based on evidence and “not on just the whims of school employees.”
We would like to see systemic change in the grievance process, but mostly we are not looking for more opportunities to complain. We’re looking for fairness, for the rule of law to lead, and for enforcement. When we add to the grievance process another layer, or to going to the TEA, we find a majority of those appeals are actually being denied by the commissioner because of jurisdiction.
Committee members also heard testimony on Paxton’s Senate Bill 13 to strengthen safeguards against sexually explicit books in school libraries.
Moms for Liberty-Texas supported several of the measures considered by the committee, including SB 400, which the group called “must-pass” legislation, and SB 13.
“Most, if not all, of the harmful, age-inappropriate and sexually explicit materials are still in Texas schools,” the group wrote in an advocacy message before the hearing. “Public schools do not follow current laws, so it is crucial that an enforcement component is added to Senate Bill 13.”
All the bills were left pending. Committee members will vote on the measures during future meetings.
Parental rights advocate Anne Newman left the lawmakers with a simple message: “I encourage you to be a hero for children, make these bills the best they can be, and pass them.”