2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB1188

The Caytlin Handley Act requires a school district to give the parent or legal guardian of a student with an intellectual disability or developmental delay information about services and public benefits from the local intellectua…

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Official caption: Relating to the provision of information regarding a local intellectual and developmental disability authority to the parents or guardians of certain special education students.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Manuel, Bumgarner, Hinojosa, Frank, Rose. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

The Caytlin Handley Act requires a school district to give the parent or legal guardian of a student with an intellectual disability or developmental delay information about services and public benefits from the local intellectual and developmental disability authority serving the student's county.
The Texas Education Agency, working with the Health and Human Services Commission, must develop these informational materials and make them available to districts.
This is an information requirement, not automatic enrollment, a determination of Medicaid eligibility or a new entitlement to a service slot.

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What does it do?

The Caytlin Handley Act requires a school district to give the parent or legal guardian of a student with an intellectual disability or developmental delay information about services and public benefits from the local intellectual and developmental disability authority serving the student’s county. The information must be provided at the first individualized education program (IEP) committee meeting at which the student’s IEP is developed. It includes information about services under federal Section 1915(c) waiver programs. Final law

The Texas Education Agency, working with the Health and Human Services Commission, must develop these informational materials and make them available to districts. HB1188 took effect May 29, 2025, and applies beginning with the 2025–26 school year. It does not say the materials must be supplied at every later IEP meeting. History

This is an information requirement, not automatic enrollment, a determination of Medicaid eligibility or a new entitlement to a service slot. The referenced federal waiver authority permits approved home- and community-based services subject to program conditions; HB1188 does not change those federal rules. Federal waiver authority, 42 U.S.C. 1396n(c)

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill would have required districts to refer each special-education student who had or was suspected to have an intellectual or developmental disability to a local authority. The House committee substitute replaced that approach with information for parents or guardians at the first IEP-development meeting, using the final eligibility wording “intellectual disability or a developmental delay.” The broader suspected-disability referral mandate was not enacted.

Both indexed House floor amendments were adopted April 24, 2025, and survive in the final law:

James Frank: specify the authority serving the student’s county and require TEA/HHSC to develop materials for districts.
Harold Dutton: name the law the Caytlin Handley Act.

The engrossed, Senate committee and enrolled operative texts match. Text versions · Introduced · House substitute · Engrossed · Senate committee · Frank amendment · Dutton amendment · Amendment index

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Families may learn earlier where to seek disability services and public-benefit information. Districts gain state-developed materials but must provide them at the required meeting. Neither receiving the information nor having an IEP guarantees eligibility, admission or immediate delivery of a particular benefit.

All three indexed Legislative Budget Board notes anticipate no significant state or local-government fiscal impact, assuming costs can be absorbed with existing resources. They provide no quantified two-year/five-year cost or estimate of additional families served. Introduced fiscal note · House-substitute note · Engrossed note

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.