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. 

• First special session ends, second special immediately begins 
• ATPE weighs in on the cell phone ban and the school finance bill
• The Texas Tribune investigates nepotism, self-dealing, and conflicts of interest among private schools
• TEA releases new data showing overall gains in accountability ratings
• TEA recruiting applicants for T-TEP Advisory Committee 
• Apply to serve on one of ATPE’s fall committees by Aug. 31
• Welcome back to school! What’s the hot topic on your campus?
• Stay in the know and take action with ATPE’s member advocacy tools

SPECIAL SESSION: The Texas House met Friday morning but failed to achieve a quorum, prompting both chambers to adjourn sine die for the first called special session of the 89th Legislature. All but two Senate Democrats were also off the floor Friday. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) immediately convened a second special session to begin at noon Friday with the same 19 agenda items. (You can read the governor's proclamation here.)  

The House cannot refer bills, or consequently set committee hearings, until a quorum is established.  

According to public comments from House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R–Lubbock), the second special session is expected to adjourn sine die before Labor Day. The House Democrats who broke quorum are expected to return to the Legislature Monday, a moved timed with California’s release of new redistricting legislation that, if adopted, would nullify any shift in congressional seats caused by redistricting in Texas.  

While the House cannot do any substantive work until at least Monday, two Senate committees, State Affairs and Finance, immediately went into hearings upon adjournment of the full Senate. These committees, with no meaningful public notice or opportunity for public testimony, heard and immediately passed a number of the exact same bills previously filed and passed in the first special session. These included the newly filed STAAR bill, previously Senate Bill (SB) 8, now SB 9, which was sent through the Finance Committee (instead of Education K–16) and passed and reported favorably to the full Senate in just minutes with no questions or public comment. You can watch the Senate Finance hearing and listen to the layout of SB 9 at the 6-minute mark. The entire hearing only lasted 19 minutes. ATPE submitted testimony during the Senate hearing on SB 8 during the first special session. Thank you to the hundreds of ATPE members who have already used the existing Advocacy Central campaign to share their views on testing and accountablity with legislators. Be on the lookout for new opportunities to engage on this important issue early next week.  

ATPE IN THE NEWS: This week the media asked ATPE to weigh in on House Bill (HB) 1481, the cell phone ban, and HB 2, the school finance bill. 

ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave told Community Impact that the association’s members are supportive of the cell phone ban but concerned about enforcement and that ATPE is encouraging members to be involved in shaping policies in their respective districts to ensure consistency and long-term enforcement. Read more here.  

Cave also spoke to the impacts of HB 2 in this story by The 74. She voiced concerns about the $8.5 billion education bill’s Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA), which only supports raises for classroom teachers and generally excludes scores of other school-based staff including counselors and school nurses. For more information on the TRA, including general information on who should qualify according to the bill and TEA guidance, see ATPE’s HB 2 resource page. 

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: Earlier this week, The Texas Tribune highlighted cases of nepotism, self-dealing, and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools, including seven cases in which school leaders were issued personal loans. The voucher bill that passed during the 89th legislative session imposes no restrictions on such practices even as taxpayer dollars will begin to be funneled to private schools. Read more here.  

A-F RATINGS: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released new data Friday showing overall gains in public school accountability ratings across the state. Although fewer schools received D and F ratings during the 2024-25 school year than during the year prior, many campuses with several consecutive years of low grades risk state sanctions. The Texas Tribune breaks down the ratings in this article.  

T-TEP: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is currently developing the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP), and the agency is looking for interested stakeholders to serve on the T-TEP stakeholder advisory committee. Those with a background in and experience with educator preparation are encouraged to apply by Sept. 15. Learn more in this blog post by ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave. 

STATE COMMITTEE SERVICE: ATPE members are invited to apply for service on one of the ATPE standing committees that meet in the fall: Leader Development, Legislative, Membership, and Nomination/Election. Applications are open until Aug. 31. Find more details and learn about the value of ATPE state committee service in this atpenews.org article. 

WELCOME BACK: As students around the state are headed back to the classroom, we want to wish you a successful year ahead. Thank you for all you do for your students, your school, and your profession! We’re curious what is the hottest topics among your colleagues this week. Vote in our ATPE Online Community poll. 

MEMBER ADVOCACY: As a new special session kicks off, we urge you to stay informed and engaged. Here are a few advocacy resources to check out: 

• Advocacy Central: Get in touch with your elected officials about the legislation impacting your profession. Be on the lookout for alerts on new campaigns to engage with elected officials in the coming week as the second special session begins in full.  
• Judy: Chat with ATPE’s new AI assistant for Texas educators, ready to help you with all things ATPE and all things #txed.   
• 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.    
• ATPE Professional Learning (PL) Portal: Three sessions from the 2025 ATPE Summit are now available in the ATPE PL Portal: an HB 2 compensation overview, the ATPE lobby team’s advocacy update and the closing keynote by Jonathan Alsheimer. Log in to watch the recordings and earn 1.5 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) credit. (Jonathan Alsheimer’s appearance arranged through Gotham Artists.) 
• 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.