SB1171

SB1171 changes pay, injury leave and fitness requirements for specified Texas Juvenile Justice Department employees, particularly the Office of Inspector General’s commissioned peace officers. It requires those commissioned officers to be paid under Schedule C, the state budget’s designated salary schedule, and directs the state auditor’s classification officer to classify their positions accordingly beginning with the biennium starting September 1, 2025. It does not set a single dollar salary or raise for every employee. Final law, sections 4–5; Office and commissioning authority.

The act makes hazardous-duty pay mandatory for the office’s investigators, inspector general, security officers and apprehension specialists. Prior law already permitted that pay; the change is from “may” to “shall” for those roles. The separate discretionary provision for employees with routine direct youth contact and at least 12 months of lifetime service credit remains. These are different eligibility descriptions; not every department employee is placed on Schedule C. Final law, section 2; Prior hazardous-duty provision.

Commissioned Office of Inspector General officers are added to the existing injury-leave law. It provides salary-preserving leave without using compensatory time or other chapter 661 leave for qualifying duty-related injuries, but excludes injuries to which the officer’s gross negligence contributed and injuries related to routine office duties. Medical examination evidence and a Texas-licensed physician’s recommended leave period are required; the maximum for injuries occurring at one time is one year. Workers’ compensation medical benefits may coexist with this leave, but disability retirement benefits may not be paid during the leave period. The extension applies only to injuries occurring on or after September 1, 2025, not earlier injuries. Final law, sections 3 and 6; Injury-leave conditions.

Adding the department to the fitness-program statute requires programs and standards for its commissioned officers. Existing law ties standards to job duties and individual age- and gender-specific fitness goals, requires consultant assistance and a reward policy offering up to four days of administrative leave per year, and permits individual exemptions, including for line-of-duty injuries. A standards violation can be just cause for discharge or the specified transfer; the law does not require automatic dismissal or guarantee four extra days to every officer. Final law, section 1; Fitness-law definitions; Fitness requirements and exceptions.

Signed June 20, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. The temporary classification-direction section expires September 1, 2027; that is not an expiration of the separate permanent Schedule C compensation requirement added to Human Resources Code 242.102(j). Official history; Final law, sections 4–7.