Back to April SBOE Meeting Highlights

Final Approval
ISD Trustee School Safety Training
The State Board of Education (SBOE) quickly gave final approval (on 2nd/final reading) to a new rule (agenda) to implement 2021’s HB690 requiring ISD board members to complete training in school safety at least every two years, and sooner (within 120 calendar days) for a new member being appointed or elected to the board.

School board candidates can also take the training up to a year before he or she is elected.

The training will be provided virtually, on demand, by the Texas School Safety Center.

The mandate applies only to ISD boards and not to charter boards.

No changes were made to the rule as posted for public comment in January, and the TEA reported receiving no public comments.

The SBOE, in a committee, previously decided that the training was to be a stand-alone requirement, and would not be made a part of other required school board training, such as incorporated into the required training in new education legislation that occurs following each regular legislative session.

The Texas Association of School Boards, in testimony to a legislative committee prior to the passage of HB690 last year, took a neutral position on the bill while also noting how much training ISD trustees currently must attain throughout the year and that 13,000 ISD board members had already taken a total of 14,000 hours of school safety and security training.

The adopted rule becomes effective 20 days after the TEA publishes it in the Texas Register — and the TEA has said that info about the new requirement will be provided by summer 2022.

Click here for the current ISD board training requirements, and here for charter board training requirements.

Rule Review
In a related action, the board approved (agenda) a public comment window — spanning from May 6 to June 10 — as the rule review period for SBOE adopted rules pertaining to school board training requirements and for rules related to special purpose school districts.

TEA staff told SBOE Committee on School Initiatives members that the rule review process could serve as a gateway for future revisions to school board training requirements, possibly as soon as when the rule review item returns to the board in July.

Texas law requires all state agencies to conduct reviews of their adopted rules every four years, primarily as a way to force a determination of whether a need for the rule continues to exist, or if changes are needed to the rule.