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

HB3963

HB3963 creates a framework for an early-childhood integrated data system to help state agencies identify service gaps, coordinate programs and evaluate outcomes.

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Official caption: Relating to an early childhood integrated data system.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Capriglione, Bhojani, Hull. 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.

HB3963 creates a framework for an early-childhood integrated data system to help state agencies identify service gaps, coordinate programs and evaluate outcomes.
The system is to integrate existing state and federal systems accessible to the cooperating entities that contain early-childhood service/program data.
TEA must report progress to the governor and Legislature by September 1 each year.

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What does it do?

HB3963 creates a framework for an early-childhood integrated data system to help state agencies identify service gaps, coordinate programs and evaluate outcomes. The Texas Education Agency is the lead agency, responsible for completing, operating and staffing the system, matching data under an approved protocol and overseeing related research. The cooperating entities are TEA, the Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Workforce Commission and Children’s Learning Institute at UTHealth Houston. A separate interagency work group includes DFPS, DSHS, HHSC, TEA and TWC. Enacted text, new Education Code 10.001–10.004

The system is to integrate existing state and federal systems accessible to the cooperating entities that contain early-childhood service/program data. The act does not authorize collection beyond that described category. Outcome measures must use aggregated data without identifying information, and that use must be expressly authorized by applicable law. The system must comply with privacy, cybersecurity and data-collection laws, including safeguards against unauthorized copying or removal of confidential information. Agencies must agree in writing on what data they share, how and how often. These provisions do not make children’s individual records public or override other confidentiality laws. Sections 10.002–10.004

TEA must report progress to the governor and Legislature by September 1 each year. The initial report covers governance, system design/security, staffing, funding and progress toward a public consumer-data dashboard; later reports add updates, uses and analytical tools. TEA must undertake to ensure completion by January 1, 2027. But an affected entity is required to implement the act only when the Legislature specifically appropriates money for that purpose; otherwise it may use other available funds, without being required to do so. The act also permits gifts, grants and donations and directs TEA to pursue government funding. It took effect September 1, 2025. Sections 10.005–10.006 and act sections 2–4

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill would have placed the system in the Human Resources Code, let the work group select a lead agency and required an initial report/designation by January 1, 2026. The House substitute moved it to the Education Code, named TEA, narrowed the cooperating-entity list, added research oversight and donation authority, and changed annual reporting to September 1 and the completion target to January 1, 2027. It removed the explicit birth-through-age-eight wording and the separate federal-waiver delay provision. Those older proposals are not the final requirements. DFPS remains on the work group but is not in the final cooperating-entity definition; the Head Start collaboration office was dropped from that definition. Introduced · House substitute · House-passed

The Senate substitute added the specific-appropriation condition for implementation; the House concurred and that condition survived. The amendment index lists no floor amendments, but the separate Senate packet contains the adopted substitute. The Senate journal records its passage without a further floor change. The governor signed the act June 20, 2025. Senate substitute · Full Senate packet · Amendment index · Senate journal, printed page 2840 · History

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 could benefit indirectly if better information helps agencies find missing services and coordinate support. Policymakers and researchers gain a framework for evaluating programs. Participating agencies face system, staffing, data-governance and security work. These are potential effects, not evidence that the system has already improved outcomes or eliminated privacy risks.

The final fiscal note estimated $3,259,064 in general-revenue costs for the 2026–27 biennium, five additional TEA positions and $849,373 annually thereafter through fiscal 2030. It included approximately $1.8 million in TEA technology costs for the first biennium and assumed HHSC could participate with existing resources. No local-government fiscal impact was anticipated. The introduced version’s $5,880,848 biennial estimate is not the final estimate. Neither estimate is itself an appropriation. Final fiscal note · Introduced fiscal note

Review boundary: This explains the enacted framework and funding condition. It does not verify that specific funding was supplied, that the system is operating, or that a particular data-sharing agreement satisfies every applicable privacy law. The public dashboard is not authorization to publish identifiable children’s records.

Official sources

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