2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB413
SB413 requires more visible records of independent school-district board meetings.
Official caption: Relating to the meetings of the boards of trustees of independent school districts.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Middleton. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
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.
- SB413 requires more visible records of independent school-district board meetings.
- The board must post the specified minutes on the district website “not later than the seventh day after the date of a meeting at which a quorum of the board is present and voting.” It must post an adopted resolution within seven days after the meeting at which that resolution was adopted.
- Both the minutes and recording of an open meeting must be publicly accessible under Government Code 551.022, which provides for inspection and copying on request.
- The bill was signed June 20, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025.
What does it do?
SB413 requires more visible records of independent school-district board meetings. Minutes, as approved by the board, must show each trustee’s attendance or absence and each trustee’s vote on every item voted on. The board must also record each regular or special meeting. Final law.
The board must post the specified minutes on the district website “not later than the seventh day after the date of a meeting at which a quorum of the board is present and voting.” It must post an adopted resolution within seven days after the meeting at which that resolution was adopted. The final law refers to board-approved minutes; it does not separately set a deadline for the board’s approval of minutes. The seven-day posting language was not removed when the approval wording was added.
Both the minutes and recording of an open meeting must be publicly accessible under Government Code 551.022, which provides for inspection and copying on request. The bill expressly requires website posting of minutes and resolutions; it does not itself require livestreaming or posting every recording online. Nor does it turn lawfully closed-session records into automatically public material: separate closed-meeting disclosure rules remain. Open-meeting records access; Closed-meeting disclosure rule.
The bill was signed June 20, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025. It amends the Education Code provision for independent school-district board meetings, not a universal rule for every governmental board. Official history.
What changed along the way?
Previously, the section required attendance to appear in minutes, a certified agenda or a recording, as applicable, and required public access to open-meeting minutes or a tape recording. The introduced bill added individual vote records, website posting of minutes/resolutions and access to both minutes and recordings. The Senate committee substitute added the explicit duty to record every regular or special meeting and removed the outdated “tape” wording. Prior statute; Introduced proposal; Senate substitute.
The sole indexed floor amendment, offered by Representative M. González, added “as approved by the board of trustees” to the minutes requirement. The House adopted it May 27 and passed the bill May 28; the Senate concurred May 30. That wording survives in the enrolled law. The Senate had passed the earlier version April 10. Amendment index; House amendment; All versions.
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?
All five listed fiscal notes anticipate no state fiscal implication and no significant local-government fiscal implication. The final posted note, dated May 29, analyzes the House-passed version including the approval amendment. It does not price recording equipment, staff time or a particular district’s website work. Final fiscal note.
Parents and residents gain clearer ways to see who attended, how each trustee voted and what resolutions the board adopted. Districts must maintain recordings and timely website records. These administrative duties may require work even though no significant public fiscal effect was forecast; the bill does not provide a dedicated new appropriation or guarantee a particular technology platform.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
