Public education

In a state that doesn't require counselors in schools, Abbott is recommending school districts find money to hire more counselors and allow them to focus on student mental health rather than administrative tasks like scheduling and college admissions.

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At a Senate hearing Monday, members of a select committee discussed mental health training and security cameras. But they failed to reach consensus on school architecture and metal detectors.

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We livestreamed a meeting of the Texas Senate Select Committee on Violence in Schools & School Security.

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The Texas Education Agency and the state's main testing vendor are investigating how more than 100 students in a high-performing Houston-area high school received zeros on their English essays.

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Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath on Wednesday released criteria that schools affected by Hurricane Harvey will have to meet to be exempt from state ratings. School administrators have argued that all schools in the disaster area should automatically get waivers.

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We livestreamed our conversation on Hurricane Harvey’s effect on public education. Read the recap and watch some highlights from the event.

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Homeless for a month and a half after the hurricane, Justin Williams had to put his life back together while teaching Alief ISD sixth graders. Tiffany Robinson pushed students even harder to pass state tests after teachers lost 11 school days to Harvey.

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Both chambers hope to have certain fixes in place before students return to school in August.

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A 2017 law offers school districts a temporary reprieve from state sanctions if they partner with nonprofits or charters to overhaul chronically underperforming schools. But logistical challenges and local backlash has made the law difficult to use this year.

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The poll was conducted in the days immediately following a deadly school shooting in Southeast Texas.

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The plan includes new gun laws, training for school officials and an app.

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The governor's announcement follows three days of roundtable discussions about school safety last week at the Capitol. He said he was open to a special session to implement some of his ideas.

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Gov. Greg Abbott will unveil a plan Wednesday to make the state's schools safer in light of the recent shooting rampage in Santa Fe that killed 10 people.

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These days, more students and teachers report being happy at Spring ISD's Bammel Middle School, and the number of three-day out-of-school suspensions dropped from 94 last school year to 47.

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A week after a student killed 10 people in Santa Fe High School, his classmates and teachers convened at the Capitol to discuss possible solutions for preventing future school shootings at the last of three roundtables on school safety Gov. Greg Abbott held this week.

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The Texas Education Agency slammed its standardized test vendor with $100,000 in damages and will re-bid the contract in June, after thousands of students were logged out of the testing system this spring.

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Architects and school safety experts say that campuses are already designed with minimizing death in mind — but that architecture can only go so far.

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Texas law prohibits employment discrimination based on a host of factors, including sex, race, religion and disability. But there’s no express protection for LGBTQ employees.

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The 17-year-old shooter who killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School last week used his father's guns. But his family would not be liable under Texas' safe storage law, since the law only applies to children under 17.

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House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook joined a growing chorus of Texas politicians who have already asked Abbott to call back lawmakers to weigh proposals on the issue.

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