SB2314

The Higher Education Coordinating Board must create, maintain and administer My Texas Future, including a link or submission route to the common college application, a list of institutions to which a student may be directly admitted based on their profile, financial-aid eligibility information to the greatest extent possible, and existing credential-value data. Public institutions must prominently link the platform on their admissions application websites and explain that students may use ApplyTexas or My Texas Future. This does not guarantee admission to every college or an award of financial aid. Final law, sections 3–4; Prior common-application provision; Existing credential-value data; Public-institution definition.

Before graduation, a student ordinarily must elect whether to opt in to necessary sharing of data and education records with institutions for direct admissions. Exceptions allow a parent or person standing in parental relation to submit a signed decline form; a student who is 18 or legally emancipated may sign for themselves; or a counselor may authorize declining in writing. Districts and open-enrollment charter schools must use the board’s form, developed with the Texas Education Agency, available in English, Spanish and the specified other program languages. This is distinct from the existing FAFSA/TASFA application-or-exception requirement. Final law, sections 1–2 and 6; Prior graduation provision, subsection (c); Existing financial-aid application requirement.

Schools must annually notify parents or guardians during registration about creating or updating a profile, revising it, opting out of programs and the data-sharing election. The notification reaches students who have earned at least three high-school credits or, at the latest, by the end of the first semester of ninth grade. The education agency and board must supply reproducible information, and the agency and schools must make necessary administrative data available to the board. Final law, 61.0511(c)–(f).

A separate rule allows the board to share a student’s contact information with an institution unless the student opts out; the board must make that opt-out available. Do not confuse that contact-information rule with the direct-admissions education-record election. Covered student information held by the board is confidential, and release must conform to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The board may withhold protected information without seeking an attorney-general ruling. Federal law contains consent rules and exceptions; the Texas act does not make these records public or override federal protections. Final law, 61.0511(g), (l); Federal education-record privacy law.

Changes during passage: The Senate substitute corrected drafting, citations, capitalization and terminology while retaining the core portal, election, opt-out, confidentiality and phased-start provisions. The Senate-passed version made further grammatical corrections; House committee and final operative texts match it. The official amendment index lists none. Introduced; Senate substitute; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The portal can make college and aid options easier to find, while schools and the board take on notice, data-handling and support work. Families retain the specified choices about sharing and participation. The law does not require college attendance or establish that the platform will increase enrollment. Final law.

The April 8 fiscal note estimates a $5,520,520 general-revenue cost for 2026–27: $3,432,760 in 2026 and $2,087,760 in 2027, with four additional full-time-equivalent positions. It assumes continued self-reported data and excludes costs of integrating education-agency or district data. District costs are indeterminate. These are estimates, not an appropriation or proof of actual spending; the bill itself makes no appropriation. Fiscal note.