TCA Capitol Report: April 28, 2023

The Texas House is scheduled to vote Monday on TCA’s highest-priority bill this session, HB 2557, which authorizes Texas to join the Interstate Counseling Compact. 
 
Thank you to TCA members who responded to our Thursday Action Alert and contacted your State Representative to support this bill. If you have not done so already, please contact your Representative and ask for their support for HB 2557 on Monday on the House floor.
 

May 9 Advocacy Day

Please register for our third and final Advocacy Day, which will be May 9. This will be the best opportunity for TCA members to visit with legislators and staff face-to-face before the session ends on May 29 and help push our bills over the finish line.

 

Other Action Items

We are now in the final month of the legislative session. Not only are more and more bills under consideration, but the House and Senate will soon be considering more bills that originated in the other part of the Capitol.

For most of the session, the House passes House bills (bills that originate in the House) and the Senate passes Senate bills. We are nearing the point in the session where each chamber will start passing each other’s bills and begin to rectify different versions of companion bills. It’s also a time when there is a lot of tension between the leadership of the Senate and the House, which means some otherwise-uncontroversial bills will become collateral damage as the two Republican-controlled chambers posture against one another.

Here’s why this matters for TCA members: Many of our top priority bills have been approved by the House and are now sitting in Senate committees. We need to amplify our advocacy with Senate offices and urge them to move these House bills soon.

You can look up your local State Senator and Representative here.
 

Please ask your local Texas Senator to:

• Oppose SB 595, which was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Thursday and could soon be eligible for consideration by the full Senate. This bill would expand the definitions of what constitutes a psychological or psychiatric exam or test for which prior parental consent is required. This would include anything designed to elicit certain information about a child presented in the form of a survey, check-in, screening, or embedded in an academic lesson. This bill would hinder school counselors’ ability to perform some of their responsibilities. In addition, existing laws already address parental rights to review materials. A similar bill in the House, HB 1149, has been approved by committee but has not been scheduled for debate by the full House. Find our one-pager here.

Please contact members of the Senate Education Committee and ask them to:

• Support HB 2929, which corrects a technical error from last session and removes the cap on professional development (CE) hours for school counselors on core content, was approved earlier this week by the House.
• Support HB 1157, which would allow students to receive excused absences for appointments with mental health professionals. This bill has not yet been set for a hearing. Please see our HB 1157 one-pager here.
• Support HB 98, which allows school districts to register as Medicaid providers and receive Medicaid funding for mental health services provided to eligible students. The House passed this bill earlier this week.

Please contact the members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and ask them to:

• Support HB 1167, the BHEC cleanup bill. This is a TCA priority bill that makes technical corrections to the BHEC structure and puts the LPC-Associate license title in statute. It has not been scheduled for a hearing.
• Support SB 1282, which has already been heard in the committee (but not voted on). It establishes the Texas Mental Health Care Enterprise Fund and grants license reciprocity to mental health professionals; pays bonuses up to $30,000 per year to MH professionals working for LMHAs, public hospitals or the state hospital, for example. 

Please contact the members of the House Committee on Public Education and ask them to:

• Oppose SB 798 unless there is a substitute adopted. As heard by the committee, this bill eliminates the requirement for school counselors to have teaching experience. Please see our SB 798 one-pager here.

 

Also Happening This Week

In previous versions of the Capitol Report, we have sounded the alarm about two bills that would allow schools to replace their school counselors with chaplains — SB 763 and HB 3614. Thanks to the advocacy of TCA members, these bills would no longer allow chaplains to replace school counselors or perform the duties of school counselors, so we are not actively working against them. Thank you, TCA members, for helping to convince the authors of these bills to make them better.

The Texas House gave approval this week to House Bill 100 by Rep. Ken King. This bill provides a modest increase of 2.3% in the Basic Allotment, which is the state’s core unit of per-student funding for schools, raising it from $6,160 to $6,300 per student. Half of the $140 per pupil funding increase is earmarked for pay raises. It also makes other tweaks to school finance formulas. School districts largely applauded the House for passing the bill but continue to ask for a larger increase in the Basic Allotment. The bill also sets minimum salaries statewide for certified educators including counselors. Details will continue to be worked out as the bill heads to the Senate for its consideration.
 

Thank you for all you are doing to support  TCA’s Public Policy Priorities  this session.