Texas Bills Explained

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

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2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB3376

HB3376 adds one hour of training on Alzheimer's disease, dementia and related disorders, generally within six months after appointment and at least annually, for certain guardians.

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Official caption: Relating to training on Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and related disorders for certain guardians.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Capriglione. 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.

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What does it do?

HB3376 adds one hour of training on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and related disorders, generally within six months after appointment and at least annually, for certain guardians. It took effect September 1, 2025, with separate 2026 rollout deadlines. Final law; history.

The new requirement concerns guardians of a person’s personal affairs, estate, or both, when the person under guardianship is 60 or older, or is under 60 and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or a related disorder. A diagnosis is not required for the age-60-and-older category.

This is not a training mandate for every family caregiver or every professional guardian. The existing subchapter excludes attorneys, corporate fiduciaries and individuals subject to the professional-certification provisions in Subchapter C. Existing rules also exclude the initial appointment of a temporary guardian, applying the training requirement if there is a motion to extend that appointment. Court investigators and guardians ad litem are not required to take this training unless a court requires it. The new law retains court-waiver authority under circumstances identified in Supreme Court rules. Scope and training provisions.

The course must address common aspects of aging, warning signs, communication strategies, and strategies and resources to help a person with dementia or Alzheimer’s exercise their rights. The Judicial Branch Certification Commission must make it available free online. Probate courts must ensure timely completion unless the court grants an allowed waiver. The pre-appointment guardian-responsibility course and background-check process remain; the new one-hour course does not replace them.

The statutory timetable is:

  • Supreme Court rules due January 1, 2026.
  • The commission’s online course due July 1, 2026.
  • Covered guardians appointed before July 1, 2026 must complete their initial training by September 1, 2026, notwithstanding the general appointment-based deadline.
  • For other covered appointments, the general six-month initial deadline and at-least-annual training requirement apply, subject to the statutory exceptions and waivers.

Those are legal requirements and deadlines, not a claim that every guardian complied or every implementation step occurred on time.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill proposed three hours of annual training and did not contain the final age/diagnosis limitation. The House committee substitute reduced the course to one hour, limited it to the specified guardianships, added related disorders and supporting resources, and made probate courts responsible for ensuring completion or granting an allowed waiver. It also adjusted the transition requirement so it applies to guardians actually covered by the new training provision. Text versions.

The House-passed text, Senate report and final law preserve that substitute’s substantive provisions. The amendment index lists no floor amendments, and the Senate committee reported the bill without amendments. The substantial change was the House committee substitute, not an adopted floor 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?

People under covered guardianships could benefit from guardians who better recognize cognitive changes, communicate effectively and support their rights. Guardians gain access to a free course but must spend time completing and repeating it. Probate courts take on compliance oversight. Training does not expand a guardian’s authority or establish that an older person has dementia.

The fiscal estimate changed with the bill. The introduced three-hour proposal had an estimated $559,942 general-revenue cost for fiscal 2026–2027, including staffing and online-course work. The later fiscal note for the narrower, one-hour text anticipated no significant state or local fiscal impact, assuming existing resources could absorb costs. The earlier dollar estimate is not the final bill’s projected cost or an appropriation. Introduced fiscal note; engrossed fiscal note.

Review boundary: This briefing explains the enacted training mandate and retained statutory exceptions. It is not a medical diagnosis, confirmation of a particular person’s waiver or compliance, or an audit of the later course and Supreme Court rules.

Official sources

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