HB2598

HB2598 replaces the statutory title “licensed specialist in school psychology” with “school psychologist.” The renamed credential is still the license issued under Occupations Code Section 501.260 by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. The law does not turn an unlicensed person into a school psychologist or replace this credential with the separate psychologist license under Section 501.252. Final law, Sections 6–9; license definitions.

The act leaves Section 501.260(b)’s qualification standards intact, including graduate education, specified coursework, at least 1,200 hours of supervised experience, examinations and other incorporated requirements. It retains the requirement that practice rules comply with nationally recognized school-psychology standards and that this license is the appropriate credential for the school services addressed by Education Code Section 21.003(b). It is a title-and-reference update, not permission for unrestricted practice without the applicable credentials. Licensing standards; school credential rule; final law.

The new title is carried through provisions concerning the public-school mental-health task force’s membership, the psychology board’s school-practitioner seat, criminal-history checks, mental-health-professional loan repayment and school-based Medicaid telehealth. Those are conforming changes to the provisions the act amended, not new programs or additional board seats. HB2598 retains the $40,000 total loan-repayment cap shown for this credential in the amended provision; it does not itself raise that amount or guarantee payment. Likewise, the telehealth provision retains its authorized-provider and advance parental-consent conditions. Final law, Sections 1–7; repayment provision; telehealth provision.

The act took effect September 1, 2025. This explanation describes its changes at enactment, not the continuing existence of every referenced task force or later amendments to those programs. Final law, Section 10; history.