SB12

What SB12 enacted—and an important court limit

SB12 expands parental access, consent and complaint procedures in public education while restricting defined diversity, equity and inclusion duties, assistance with social transitioning, certain instruction and certain student clubs. It also adds school reporting and transparency requirements. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025 and applies beginning with the 2025–26 school year. The provisions below describe the enacted text; their coverage differs between school districts and charter schools. official history; Final law.

A later court order matters: in GSA Network v. Morath, the February 20, 2026 injunction (court-filed copy) barred Houston, Katy and Plano ISDs and the specified associated persons from implementing or enforcing the act’s DEI, social-transition, sexual-orientation/gender-identity instruction and student-club provisions during that litigation. It did not block the whole act statewide or require schools to abandon preexisting facility-access procedures. The accompanying court opinion dismissed the commissioner for lack of standing and granted the preliminary relief as unopposed by the districts. These docket-stamped primary documents are hosted by CourtListener, not the court’s website. This is a dated account of that order, not certification of every subsequent order or any district’s current compliance.

Parental information and consent

The act protects specified parental education, moral/religious-training and treatment decisions against government infringement unless necessary for a compelling state interest and narrowly tailored using the least restrictive means. It expressly recognizes choosing public, private or home schooling. Districts must provide information on parental rights at enrollment and annually, with a state-developed form prominently posted online. Parents gain express access to their child’s library checkout records; districts must post semester instructional plans or syllabi and supply them to parents. Districts and open-enrollment charters must post a homepage notice about parents’ right to review teaching materials. Final law, Sections 1 and 11–15.

District engagement policies must offer an online comment portal, put public comments at the start of board meetings and hold meetings outside typical work hours. District policies must provide at least two opportunities for in-person parent-teacher conferences each school year. A parent must receive notice within one school business day after an employee first suspects a criminal offense against the child, subject to the existing child-abuse provision. The law preserves compliance with other laws, including federal student-records privacy law, rather than declaring every nondisclosure unlawful. Final law, Sections 11, 15–16 and 25–26.

Health-related changes and monitoring generally trigger parental information duties. But disclosure is not required under the specified notification/access provisions when a reasonably prudent person would believe it likely to cause abuse or neglect. Child-abuse reporting and investigations remain protected. Schools may ask about a child’s daily or general well-being without first obtaining parental consent; the act does not turn every ordinary conversation into a consent-required examination. Annual health-service notices must explain the right to decline services. Final law, Sections 17–18.

Written, signed parental consent is required for the covered psychological or psychiatric examinations, tests and treatment, specified health-information disclosures and biometric-data actions unless other law authorizes them, and health services, medication and medical procedures. Definitions reach certain surveys, screenings and methods embedded in lessons, not merely activities labeled “tests.” Existing exceptions for child-abuse/special-education requirements and specified video or voice recordings remain. Routine care by authorized providers may use consent obtained at enrollment or the school year’s start, generally lasting through that year unless the parent provides otherwise. Consent records must be retained. Final law, Section 18.

Before a pre-K–12 well-being questionnaire or health screening, parents must receive a copy and give the required consent. Human-sexuality instruction also requires written consent; the request must arrive at least 14 days before instruction and cannot be bundled with other requests except the related statutory notice. Certain state counseling and professional standards had to be reviewed and revised as needed by June 30, 2026; that temporary review provision expires September 1, 2027. Final law, Sections 17 and 23.

Restrictions on school duties, instruction and clubs

The DEI restriction covers defined hiring influences, race-based differential treatment or benefits, specified programs referencing race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation, and solicited or favored DEI statements. It is not simply a ban on mentioning race. Exceptions and safeguards preserve required legal compliance, specified historically Black college recruitment collaborations, lawful minority/women-owned business contracting, state-standard classroom instruction, data collection, commemorations, student speech, and steps against unlawful discrimination addressing achievement gaps. Districts must prohibit employees, contractors and volunteers from performing the covered duties; employee/contractor discipline for knowing or intentional violations must include due process and an appeal opportunity. The DEI provisions also apply to open-enrollment charters. Final law, Sections 3 and 8.

Districts must adopt policies barring employees from assisting enrolled students with “social transitioning,” defined in the act by reference to a move from sex at birth to the opposite sex through names, pronouns or other gender expressions. The text includes providing information or guidelines intended to assist that transition. Boards must investigate reported suspected violations and report confirmed violations to the commissioner; parents may use the district grievance process. The final act does not retain the House amendment’s express extension of this provision to open-enrollment charters. Final law, Section 7 and the final Section 12.104 amendments.

Districts, open-enrollment charters and their employees may not provide—or allow a third party to provide—pre-K–12 instruction, guidance, activities or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. The provision preserves protected nondisruptive student expression, authorized health services subject to required consent, and meetings of single-sex organizations whose mission does not advance a political or social agenda. Separately, the enacted club rule bars school authorization or sponsorship of clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity and requires written parental consent for participation in authorized or sponsored clubs. These are among the four provisions covered by the limited injunction described above. Final law, Sections 21, 24 and 27.

Districts and charters must adopt discipline policies for knowing or intentional violations of the existing instructional restrictions in Section 28.0022; SB12 does not create all those older curriculum rules anew. Superintendents must certify compliance with the specified DEI/instructional provisions to TEA by September 30 annually, after public board approval with at least seven days’ posted notice and an opportunity for public testimony. Certifications must describe policies, changes and any resulting savings, and TEA must publish them. Final law, Sections 22 and 28.

A new grievance process and other accountability rules

Districts must provide staged complaint review, from the appropriate campus or central-office administrator through the superintendent and board. A board may delegate to a committee of at least three trustees. Policies must prohibit retaliation, require conflicted reviewers to step aside, retain reasons and evidence, allow added documents/claims, route misfiled complaints correctly and decide the merits despite procedural errors. Board hearings must be recorded, with at least five business days’ notice of information outside the record on which the board intends to rely. Parents generally may request open or closed hearings unless other law requires otherwise. Final law, Sections 19–20.

Parents must have at least 60 days from knowing the facts to file; after informal resolution efforts, the minimum is the later of 90 days from that knowledge or 30 days after the district explains how to file. Appeals get at least 20 days. Non-board hearings must occur within 10 days of filing, with a decision within 20 days after the hearing. Board meetings must occur within 60 days of the previous decision, followed by a decision within 30 days. Districts must publish procedures/forms and accept electronic filing, report grievances annually, and face required superintendent testimony if the commissioner finds against them in at least five qualifying grievances in a school year. TEA’s statewide grievance report is due each December 1. Final law, Chapter 26A.

Other provisions require annual facility/land capacity and usage reporting, with security-risk information withheld from the public report; annual trustee information and updates within 30 days of a new trustee’s swearing-in; and compliance with mandatory school policies. The act preserves the federal special-education fee rules and excludes local grievances from its frivolous-proceeding fee provision. It prevents innovation-plan exemptions from the specified health-education rules, including existing plans, and reinforces the teacher-certification parent-notice requirement subject to its existing federal-notice exception. Final law, Sections 1–2, 4–6, 9–10 and 29.