Texas to expand how schools discipline students

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Texas schools will be able to use harsher punishments to discipline students after the Texas Legislature passed a sweeping package on Wednesday — part of their efforts to stem student violence after the pandemic.

“Disruptions are impeding both the ability of teachers to teach and the ability of students to learn,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock.

House Bill 6 would extend how long schools can place students in in-school suspensions from three days to as long as they see appropriate. Principals would need to review the placement every 10 days. Students facing in-school suspension still complete schoolwork in a different classroom on school grounds.

Because the bill would allow schools to use out-of-school suspensions to discipline all students when they engage in “repeated and significant” classroom disruption or threaten the health and safety of other children, it would make it easier for schools to discipline students experiencing homelessness and the state's youngest students. That's because the bill would reverse state laws from 2017 and 2019 that put limitations on when and how those students could be disciplined. When schools do out an out-of-school suspension to students in kindergarten through third grade, they’ll need to provide documentation of the students’ disruptive behavior.

Both chambers have approved the legislation — the Senate last week and the House last month. With the House’s approval Wednesday of 19 Senate amendments to the bill, 114-19, it now heads to the governor.

The legislation also amends when schools send students to alternative education settings, a strict environment that often leans on computer-based work and is in a different building. While students caught vaping were previously required to go to alternative education settings, schools can now give students caught with a vape device less severe consequences if it is their first offense. Schools can also teach students in alternative education programs remotely — a mode of instruction that was shown to contribute to learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perry, who shepherded the bill in the Senate, said the legislation was six years in the making.

“We've reached a crisis point where there's just some kids that absolutely are such a deterrent to the overall learning process that we have to find a better way,” Perry said on the Senate floor last week. “With that, HB 6 found that balance. I like where we landed.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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