Legislation Impacting Student Discipline 

In part:

Campus Behavior Coordinator (CBC): Each campus must designate a single CBC. While additional staff may assist, the CBC is solely responsible for ensuring full compliance with all provisions of Chapter 37, Subchapter A of the Texas Education Code (TEC). New CBC duties include monitoring all disciplinary referrals and reporting certain offenses and behaviors to the campus threat assessment team. 

Districts of Innovation: School districts cannot exempt themselves from any part of Chapter 37, TEC, in a district of innovation plan. 

Student Code of Conduct (SCOC)

Removal from Class by a Teacher: The bill expanded authority for a teacher to remove a student from their classroom under TEC, §37.002(b), which can be based on a single incident of misconduct. 

In-School Suspension (ISS): The law does not provide limits on the length of placement in ISS; however, the CBC must review a student’s ISS placement at least once every ten school days to determine if continued placement is appropriate.

Out-of-School Suspension (OSS): The limited offenses that authorize out-of-school suspension for a student below grade 3 or who is experiencing homelessness have been revised to refer to conduct that threatens the immediate health and safety of other students and documented conduct that results in repeated or significant disruption in the classroom. Weapons and certain drug or alcohol offenses also remain on the list of limited offenses that would authorize OSS. 

E-Cigarettes: Possession or use of an e-cigarette is now a discretionary removal to a DAEP; however, if a first-time offender is not placed in a DAEP, they must be placed in ISS for at least ten school days. 

Expulsion: Many offenses that previously required being on school property or at a school-sponsored activity have been revised so that location no longer applies to most mandatory expulsion grounds. 

*Continue complying with IDEA requirements. Although students with disabilities can typically be removed from class if they misbehave under the same rules as students without disabilities, when a student is removed from their typical classroom and doesn’t receive their required services for a certain number of days, the student’s Section 504 committee or admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee must review whether the misconduct was caused by the student’s disability or the school’s failure to follow the student’s plan or program.