Local Grievance Process

TEA encourages parents, students, staff, and members of the public to raise concerns with their school or school system as soon as an issue arises. If you aren’t able to reach a resolution through an informal meeting with the appropriate teacher or school administrator, Texas Education Code (TEC) Section 11.1511, requires school systems to provide a formal process for listening and responding to concerns. This is typically done through the school system's local grievance process.

Issues the Local Grievance Process Can Address

The local grievance process is intended to give the stakeholders a formal process to raise concerns with their school or school system and provide the school system an opportunity to resolve those concerns. Since TEA's complaint process can only address certain violations of law, TEA refers parents and other stakeholders to the local grievance process for the following issues: 

• Transportation
• Child custody
• Classroom assignments/campus transfers
• Designation of excused or unexcused absences
• Dress code
• District grading policies and student retention
• Homework practices
• Student discipline
• Interpersonal interactions
• Staff hiring and evaluation
• Cafeteria food options
• Job responsibilities
• Student pick-up/drop-off
• Extracurricular activities
• Disagreements with school staff

If you have a concern about a violation of law, please learn more about filing a TEA complaint on the General Education Complaints webpage.  Additionally, some topics are best addressed by other state or federal agencies, including Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), discrimination, health concerns, wage disputes, criminal activity, ethics concerns, school board elections, interscholastic activities, and Section 504.  For more information on these and other matters, please visit our TEA's Complaints page.

Tips for Filing a Grievance with Your School or District

Every district’s process might be a little different. If you choose to file a local grievance, acting quickly is important to meet your school district’s reporting deadlines! You may be required to report your concern within 10–15 days of becoming aware of the issue.

When filing a grievance, it is important that you keep the following things in mind: 

• Document in writing all details of your concern as soon as you are made aware, including dates, names of parties involved, witnesses, etc. 
• Raise the concern or complaint to your school or district as soon as possible. School district policies usually require you to file a grievance within 10-15 days after learning about the issue.
• Keep a record of all communications, including phone calls and in-person meetings you have with school or district staff.

Finding Your School District's Grievance Policy

To find your district's local grievance policy, ask an administrator how to access the relevant policies, which might be on the district's board policy website.  

Policy manuals generally have three separate grievance policies: 

• DGBA (LOCAL) for employee grievances, 
• FNG (LOCAL) for student and parent grievances, and
• GF (LOCAL) for grievances by all others, including vendors and taxpayers.

The Grievance Process

If you are aggrieved by the actions or decision of the Board of Trustees regarding your local grievance, you may be able to appeal that decision to the Commissioner of Education. Learn more about Appeals to the Commissioner on the Hearings and Appeals General Information page.

General Resources