The ATPE Governmental Relations team recaps the past week’s education news, legislative and election updates, and regulatory developments. ATPE members: Share your thoughts and ask our lobby team questions in The Rotunda on the ATPE Online Community. 

• ATPE publishes HB 2 FAQs to answer educators’ most common questions about the school finance bill 
• Special session dominated by redistricting with no bill filed yet to tackle testing and accountability reform 
• Teach the Vote analysis: STAAR rescoring issue highlights need to slow down, get testing bill right
• Alert: Opportunity to serve on T-TESS advisory committee 
• Selected 2025 ATPE Summit session recordings now available in the PL portal 
• Stay up to date and take action using ATPE’s member advocacy tools 

HB 2: Many educators are reaching out to ATPE with questions as their school districts implement House Bill (HB) 2, the major school finance bill passed by the 89th Legislature. Within HB 2 are two allotments that require districts to provide educator pay increases: the Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) and the Support Staff Retention Allotment (SSRA). ATPE has posted an HB 2 FAQs page in the Legal Resources section of atpe.org to answer educators’ most common questions. In addition, ATPE members may log in to the ATPE Professional Learning Portal to watch the HB 2 Compensation Panel Discussion recorded at the recent ATPE Summit. This on-demand session features ATPE Associate Executive Director Jennifer Mitchell, ATPE Governmental Relations Director Monty Exter, and ATPE Member Legal Services Director Judd Gibson discussing the complexities of HB 2 implementation. (You’ll earn 1.5 hours of continuing professional education credit for watching the panel recording.) 

SPECIAL SESSION: The Texas special session has been overwhelmingly dominated by redistricting, with lawmakers pushing a President Trump-backed plan to boost GOP congressional seats from 25 to 30, drawing sharp criticism over potential voter suppression and racial gerrymandering.  

Despite a broad agenda that included THC regulation and STAAR, almost nothing other than redistricting has received meaningful attention until Thursday, when a long-overdue public hearing on the deadly July 4 Hill Country floods finally took place in Kerrville. Lawmakers heard emotional testimony about delayed warnings and communication breakdowns that contributed to the deaths of more than 130 people. The communication failures were somewhat reminiscent of the Uvalde school shooting and highlighted the need for better infrastructure.  

Don’t forget to engage in the Advocacy Central campaigns to let your legislators know how you feel about the as-yet-unfiled STAAR bill. Rumor has it the bill will focus mostly on repackaging and rebranding the current test, as well as prohibiting districts from suing the state, instead of reforms that would improve assessment for students, help teachers fill gaps sooner, or address the overly punitive accountably system tied to the state test. 

STAAR: With two weeks left in the special session, the authors of two major testing bills introduced during the regular session—Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado) and Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston)—have yet to file bills, and there have been no hearings scheduled. It seems doubtful that a bill could be filed and successfully make it through the process before time runs out.  

Many ATPE members completed a survey at the beginning of the special session in which they emphasized testing reform must include: 1) a pause on punitive accountability to allow educators, parents, and lawmakers to assess the efficacy of to the new test, 2) a prohibition on benchmark testing, and 3) a commission to propose system changes by January 2027.  

A recent article in The Dallas Morning News highlights the need for the reforms requested by our membership. TEA announced it would be moving to the use of AI scoring for STAAR tests in fall 2023 to meet budgetary and timeline goals.  When Dallas ISD asked TEA to rescore 85% of the third grade tests submitted came back with higher scores after human review. District officials pointed out the need for transparency given the obvious flaws in the AI scoring system. School districts have traditionally sought transparency and accountability from TEA by filing suit, but the legislature seems poised to bar districts from suing the agency.  

ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave has more in this Teach the Vote analysis. 

T-TESS: The Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS), our state’s now ten-year-old teacher evaluation system, is scheduled to get a refresh over the next year, with a pilot set to begin in fall 2026. T-TESS will be updated to align with the new teacher pedagogy standards, which the Texas Education Agency (TEA) developed and implemented over the past year. Learn more in this blog post by ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave. 

SUMMIT: Two additional sessions from the 2025 ATPE Summit are now available in the ATPE Professional Learning (PL) Portal: the ATPE lobby team’s legislative update and the closing keynote by Jonathan Alsheimer. Log in to the PL Portal to watch the recordings and earn 1.5 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) credit. 

Jonathan Alsheimer’s appearance arranged through Gotham Artists. 

MEMBER ADVOCACY: With just two weeks left in the special session, we urge you to stay informed and engaged. Here are a few advocacy resources to check out: 

• Judy: Chat with ATPE’s new AI assistant for Texas educators, ready to help you with all things ATPE and all things #txed.   
• Advocacy Central: Get in touch with your elected officials about the legislation impacting your profession. 
• ATPE Member Advocate Program (ATPE-MAP): Enroll in ATPE-MAP to earn state-level and local-level advocacy microcredentials, as well as earn continuing professional education (CPE) credit. ATPE-MAP is included in your member benefits, so be sure to check it out today.    
• The Rotunda: Don’t forget, members, that you can interact with your ATPE lobby team throughout the week when you log in to the ATPE Online Community.