HB120

HB120 expands support for career pathways and certain students finishing college-linked programs after high school, and requires more information about what happens to students after they leave school. It changes several school-funding rules, but does not make every college course free or guarantee a job. Signed June 20, 2025, most provisions took effect immediately; the Chapter 48 school-finance changes took effect September 1, 2025. Specified course, examination, rural-partnership and counseling changes apply beginning with the 2025–26 school year. Final law, Sections 1–30; history and effective-date remarks.

Finishing a college-linked pathway after graduation. The Financial Aid for Swift Transfer (FAST) program can cover qualifying dual-credit courses for certain graduates who remain enrolled in a designated P-TECH campus or participating Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) district and are completing the agreed college-linked course of study. P-TECH links high school with college and career preparation; R-PEP supports rural districts’ shared college and career pathways. Students must still meet the other FAST requirements, including enrollment at a participating college and educational-disadvantage eligibility during the current or preceding four school years. This is not universal free college for graduates. HB120, Section 4; SB1786, Sections 1–2, retaining the other FAST conditions.

The Foundation School Program—the state’s principal school-funding system—also expands eligibility to certain graduates under 21 on September 1 who meet the specified enrollment and P-TECH/R-PEP course-of-study conditions. Districts may use funding for graduates’ dual-credit education and for advising their graduates during the first two years after high school toward a public-college certificate or degree or postsecondary vocational training. These are permissions and eligibility rules, not an unconditional payment to every graduate. Final law, Sections 12–14; current Education Code, Sections 48.003–.0035.

Career-course and examination support. Qualifying Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) courses become career and technology education programs, including for the applicable school-funding formula; the funding definition still requires high-school credit. The additional P-TECH amount rises from $50 to $150 per qualifying student in average daily attendance, covering designated-campus enrollment or completion of the specified P-TECH/R-PEP course of study. The old separate New Tech Network campus category is replaced; this is not $150 for every student merely enrolled in any career course. Final law, Sections 5 and 15–16.

Eligible students may receive up to two certification-exam subsidies instead of one; the underlying successful-program/special-education and passing-exam requirements remain. Teacher subsidies expand from cybersecurity exams to career-and-technology-related certification exams. Reimbursable costs can include associated fingerprinting and criminal-history checks. District reimbursement for student examinations is capped statewide at $20 million per school year, including no more than $500,000 for those checks; excess claims are reduced proportionately. High school juniors in spring and seniors gain a commissioner-approved national career-readiness assessment as an alternative within the existing one-time, state-paid assessment choice. Final law, Sections 6, 10–11 and 20–21.

Rural partnerships and facilities. Districts already participating in R-PEP can remain after growing beyond the program’s initial size limit. When enrollment first reaches 1,600, the continued-funding provision allows funding for up to 110% of the number of students qualifying in the preceding school year—not 110% of every district student. The statewide R-PEP allotment and outcomes-bonus cap rises from $5 million to $20 million annually. Separate two-year planning, establishment and expansion grants are capped at $5 million per school year. The law removes the former priority for coordinating entities with specified experience; remaining oversubscription priorities favor older commitments, higher-education partners and districts serving higher proportions of disadvantaged students. Final law, Sections 8, 17 and 26.

The new-instructional-facility allotment can include a renovated portion first used for commissioner-designated high-cost, undersubscribed career programs. Its annual appropriation ceiling rises from $100 million to $150 million. If claims exceed appropriated money, allotments are reduced and the commissioner may remove qualifying career programs from the renovation category. Raising a ceiling is not itself appropriating that amount. Final law, Sections 18–19.

Better information, with privacy limits. TEA must publish de-identified postsecondary and employment outcomes by district or charter school, high school campus and cohort for the ten most recent annual cohorts. The information includes college enrollment, persistence, completion and employment measures, plus specified information for students who did not graduate. Remediation data and nongraduate employment data have availability limits. Publication must comply with federal student-record privacy law; where needed, access can use a private portal for specified school officials and counselors. The law does not authorize a public list of individual students’ wages. Final law, Section 2.

District readiness plans must set goals for credentials earned in high school and graduate outcomes at one, three and five years, including further education and earnings. Annual reports go to trustees, TEA and the Legislative Budget Board and must be posted at least two weeks before the public review-and-approval meeting. TEA must establish a measurable statewide career-readiness goal, update it at least every five years, and make the first update no later than 2028–29. School counselors must annually give students and families additional pathway, cost, completion, wage and My Texas Future information; TEA supplies annual online counselor training. Final law, Sections 1–3, 9 and 27.

Parents of JROTC students must receive notices about available military-related early-registration or scholarship opportunities during high-school registration and annually. The notice must offer an option to share specified student information with public higher-education institutions; it is not an instruction to automatically release every student’s records. Final law, Section 7.

The Texas Workforce Commission must work with employers on enhanced wage filings covering wages, industry, occupation, full-/part-time status, employment county and remote-work status. Because SB1786 became law, HB120’s Section 22 operates and its alternative Section 23 does not. The reporting links to the regional labor-demand assessment; HB120 also updates the industry-certification inventory’s terminology and allows consultation with TEA. These provisions do not establish that every requested dataset is already complete. HB120, Sections 22–25; SB1786 history; current Labor Code Section 204.0025.