Senate Bill 11 (SB 11) and Other School Safety-Related Legislation

Key Points: 

• Each month, the Texas Education Agency will share guidance on Senate Bill (SB) 11, 86th Texas Legislature, and related school safety bills. 
• Information shared in these monthly TAAs and (as well as posted on TEA’s updated school safety website) details new safety requirements for districts or open-enrollment charter schools.
• This month’s update includes information related to SB 11 data collection and the most commonly asked questions about House Bill (HB) 496, which addresses bleeding control measures.
• If you have specific questions about the bill, please email us at schoolsafety@tea.texas.gov.

In the 2019 legislative session, the Texas Legislature increased safety and mental health supports in Texas schools through the passage of several comprehensive pieces of legislation, including SB 11, which includes: expansion of mental health initiatives and provision of funding to increase safety and security on school campuses. 

As part of TEA’s effort to provide timely and in-depth information to support implementation of SB11, the Agency has created a website, tea.texas.gov/schoolsafety. 

Beginning with this letter, on the fourth Thursday of each month, TEA will share implementation guidance regarding school safety.  This month’s update (found below) includes information related to SB 11 data collection and the most commonly asked questions about a related bill of the 86th Legislative Session, House Bill (HB) 496, which addresses bleeding control measures.  

Strengthening Safety and Emergency Protocols 
Behavioral Threat Assessment Data Collection 
SB 11 requires public schools to conduct behavioral threat assessment and collect relevant data on its efficacy. TEA, in conjunction with Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC), will be providing supports and guidance to help public schools implement behavioral threat assessment beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. The timeline below outlines high-level next steps public schools should take to plan effectively.  

Spring/Summer 2020:

• Ensure that appropriate members of your district or charter school attend behavioral threat assessment training. The TxSSC will be hosting a new series of trainings across the state beginning March 25, 2020. You can find a schedule on the TxSSC website. Additionally, please reach out to your regional Education Service Center (ESC) as many of them offer approved behavioral threat assessment training. 
• Collect baseline data on the following in order to prepare for the November 13, 2020 reporting to TEA:

1. Whether your district or charter school has received training on behavioral threat assessment, and established a functioning behavioral threat assessment process 
2. The roles of personnel conducting the behavioral threat assessment 
3. The number of campuses served by a functioning behavioral threat assessment process 
4. The number of threats assessed using behavioral threat assessment during the 2019-2020 school year 
   • Please note that this data will be collected using a survey and will be based on the activities that occurred from September 1, 2019 through August 31, 2020.

• Prepare to implement behavioral threat assessment in the fall of 2020, if it is not already in place on a campus. 

Fall 2020:

• Review the guidance on the Safe and Supportive Schools Program, including the implementation of behavioral threat assessment, provided in to-be-adopted rules and follow-up guidance documents. 
• Report data for the November 13, 2020 baseline data collection, as previewed above
• Prepare for the 2021-2022 comprehensive data collection 
  • Look for guidance from TEA on the 2021-2022 school year behavioral threat assessment data collection, including data elements and definitions. This collection will include more comprehensive data and will require behavioral threat assessment to be fully functioning in order to report outcomes.  
  • Collect data in preparation for the Fall 2021-2022 comprehensive behavioral threat assessment data collection.

House Bill 496 (Bleeding Control Measures) 

• HB 496 requires public schools to provide the appropriate, TEA-approved staff training on the use of bleeding control stations. A comprehensive FAQ document will be released in the coming weeks. However, the following addresses key areas of clarification that have arisen to date: 
  1. How many bleeding control stations does a campus need to have? Texas Education Code (TEC) §38.030(b)(1) requires that bleeding control stations, meaning more than one per campus, must be stored in easily accessible areas of the campus that are selected by the district's school safety and security committee or the charter school's governing body. 
  2. Where should the bleeding control stations be stored? TEC §38.030(c) requires that districts and charter schools ensure that bleeding control stations are stored in easily and accessible areas of a campus that are selected by the district’s school safety and security committee or the charter school’s governing body. One possible storage option might be where automated external defibrillators are stored.  
  3. Do students need to be trained, and which students? The law requires a district or charter school to offer instruction to students. It does not require students to receive the instruction. The training to be offered to students is the same training for students in grades 7-12 and must be offered each year to all students in that grade range.
  4. Which staff need to be trained to use bleeding control stations? The law requires that TEA-approved training on the use of bleeding control stations be provided to each school district peace officer or school security personnel who provides security services at the campus, each school resource officer who provides law enforcement at the campus, and all other district or charter school personnel who may reasonably be expected to use a bleeding control station. 

New Resources Available 

• The federal government recently released a new website entirely devoted to school safety. Schoolsafety.gov includes: 
  • The School Safety Readiness Tool, an assessment that assists users in evaluating their school’s safety posture across 10 foundational elements of school safety. After completing the assessment, users are provided an action plan with task prioritization, options for consideration, aligned resources, and grant opportunities on a secure information sharing platform for designated school personnel to share school safety ideas, practices, plans, and tactics in a protected environment; and
  • A wide array of resources and best practices on key school safety topics to assist with building awareness within the school community to promote vigilance and build capacity to respond to incidents.

Providing Funding for Schools to Increase Safety and Security on Campus 
Safety and Security Grant 

• The Texas Legislature appropriated $100,000,000 to the Texas Education Agency to provide funding to public schools for additional safety and security equipment. The grant window closed on January 31, 2020. Of Texas’ 1,201 districts, 1,178 applied for this funding. Districts have begun to receive Notice of Grant Awards (NOGAs) and will continue to receive notice of awards through the end of February.  

Expanding Mental Health Initiatives 
House Bill 906 Task Force 

• HB 906 created a collaborative task force on public mental health services to study and evaluate mental health services and training provided at public schools. The first task force meeting was held on February 11, 2020 in Austin. You can find the task force participants, meeting agenda, and future meeting dates on the TEA advisory committee website.