State lawmakers want to make it easier for schools to suspend younger students and students experiencing homelessness.
House Bill 6, which is sponsored by nearly three-quarters of Republican representatives in the Texas House, greenlights the use of suspension for students below the third grade for conduct that results in “repeated or significant disruption in the classroom” or threatens the “immediate health and safety of other students.”
The bill would limit the number of days students below the third grade can be suspended out of school to three days, but the length of in-school suspensions would be left for districts and schools to decide on. Under the bill, schools may also create online alternative schools for students with serious misconduct issues or send students to alternative disciplinary schools.
Other out-of-school suspension worthy offenses in the bill include offenses related to weapons and using or being in possession of controlled substances like marijuana or alcohol.
During a public education committee hearing on Tuesday, some state lawmakers questioned whether the bill was too harsh and others framed the bill as a support system for teachers and school administrators.
Rep. Mark Dorazio (R-San Antonio), who co-sponsors the bill, said the bill is “designed to strengthen the authority of teachers in managing classroom discipline while ensuring all students receive a structured and supportive educational experience.”
“The bill expands teachers’ ability to maintain order, safeguard student safety and uphold academic integrity in their classrooms. There is only a minor portion of the bill that relates to homeless students,” Dorazio said in a text message.
Reps. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio) and John Lujan (R-San Antonio) are also co-sponsors of the bill.
During the public education committee hearing on HB 6, several education leaders including teachers, principals and superintendents testified in support of the bill, but not all teacher advocates view the prosed legislation as the correct solution to student conduct and classroom management.
Melina Espiritu-Azocar, president of the teacher union Northside American Federation of Teachers, said lawmakers should focus on funding schools to have more counselors, social workers and wraparound services instead of punishing children.
“Students need support with background services, with social workers and with people that can support and help their families. And [HB 6] does none of that,” Espiritu-Acozar said.
HB 6 is not the first time the state has meddled in the regulation of student discipline.
In 1995, the state passed Chapter 37, a stack of rules and regulations for how educators should address student conduct, which outlines when schools have the authority to remove disruptive students from classrooms or find alternative disciplinary programs for them.
Chapter 37, which is 130 pages in length, was called an “overblown bureaucratic nightmare that has made misbehaving, aggressive and violent students a bigger problem” by the Student Behavior Management Coalition, a group of roughly 40 school districts from the state committed to bettering discipline-management in schools.
More recently, the state passed a 2019 law outlawing the suspension of students experiencing homelessness except in extreme cases involving violence, weapons, drugs or alcohol.
But an investigation by the Report and the Houston Landing in 2024 found that hundreds of students experiencing homelessness — students who rely on schools for food, shelter and showers — were probably unlawfully suspended for minor infractions by school districts in the state, including several in San Antonio.
In response to the report, San Antonio Independent School District — who admitted to unlawfully suspending students experiencing homelessness last summer — retrained leaders on the 2019 suspension law. The district also said they would commit $2.4 million for mental health for students and added two new counselors and a program coordinator meant specifically to support students experiencing homelessness.
Currently, SAISD has a staff of seven licensed master social workers to support students experiencing homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act, federal legislation passed in 1987 that requires schools to provide transportation and enrollment services to those students, spokesperson for the district Laura Short said.
Northside Independent School District has 10 social workers, spokesperson Barry Perez said. Four of the social workers focus on “connections,” three are dedicated to “school-age parenting”; one social worker is for alternative schools students and two are for special education students.
Historically, homeless children make up 1.5% of all K-12 students in Texas. Under McKinney-Vento, students who double up with friends or live out of motels or in subpar conditions are considered homeless.
Short also said that this year, the district allocated $2.5 million mainly through grant funding to support students and families with direct access to mental health resources.
Following the report Into school districts unlawfully suspending homeless students, the TEA warned 460 school districts this January that they might have violated state law and sanctions might occur if violations continued.
Despite laws attempting to regulate student discipline practices, suspension rates have remained the same or increased in San Antonio school districts the past few years.
During the 2023-24 school year 3,544 students from SAISD were suspended out of school. Many of them were suspended out of school more than once since Texas Education Agency data counts the number of those “discipline actions” taken by the district upwards of 6,000 times.
In the same school year, more students from NISD were issued in-school-suspensions than out-of-school suspensions. Nearly 8,5000 students were suspended in school while 5,136 were suspended out of school. Like SAISD, NISD’s numbers for reported discipline actions are higher than the number of students who were suspended.
Adrian Reyna, the executive vice president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, echoes Espiritu-Acozar’s opposition to HB 6 and support for increased funding for mental heath and wraparound services for students in need.
Reyna said the state lawmakers behind the bill don’t have “any real understanding of the day-to-day” workings of a campus.
While Reyna said he acknowledges the struggles teachers are going through in the classroom when it comes to student discipline, “throwing the book” at students is a “misguided attempt to help teachers.”
One good thing the HB 6 would do, Reyna said, is repeal House Bill 114 passed during the 88th Legislative Session, an amendment to Chapter 37 mandating that students caught in possession of vapes, or e-cigarettes, on school property or within 300 feet of campus be immediately placed in a disciplinary alternative education program.
