SB571

SB571 expands school-misconduct reporting, hiring checks and state investigations, and shortens professionals’ child-abuse reporting deadline. It consolidates many existing Education Code provisions into Chapter 22A while adding duties covering service providers, private-school personnel and education-savings-account providers. It also creates a Class B misdemeanor for failing to disclose required information in a pre-employment or pre-service affidavit. It is much broader than the original contractor-screening proposal. Final law, Articles 1–2.

Timing: signed June 20, 2025, the law took effect immediately and generally applies beginning with the 2025–26 school year. The comptroller’s education-savings-account provider reporting provision starts with 2026–27. A separate transition rule says the revised educator and employee/service-provider reporting sections apply only to offenses committed on or after September 1, 2025; earlier offenses remain governed by former law, including when any element occurred before that date. Article 3; Official history.

Two distinct reporting duties: professionals such as teachers, doctors and day-care workers who meet the Family Code trigger must report suspected child abuse or neglect no later than 24 hours after first having reasonable cause, down from 48 hours. They still cannot delegate that duty. The separate school-misconduct system requires 48-hour reports for specified evidence involving abuse, improper romantic/sexual conduct, inappropriate communications or boundary violations; it does not wait for a resignation or firing. These school reports go through TEA’s secure portal and do not replace the Family Code report. The general duty for any person to report immediately remains. Sections 1.07–1.08 and 1.30; Retained general reporting duty.

The misconduct categories include unjustified physical mistreatment or threats even without bodily injury; communications and boundary violations are to be defined by certification-board rules. Covered noncertified employees and service providers with direct student contact are included. Schools must continue specified investigations despite departure, notify the affected student’s parent or guardian as soon as feasible, and notify the report’s subject and governing body as required. Private-school reporting now covers employees and applicants more broadly, with a 48-hour trigger on awareness of the specified evidence. Beginning in 2026–27, the comptroller must report covered education-savings-account provider misconduct to TEA and the certification board and require participating providers to supply necessary information. Sections 1.04, 1.07–1.09 and 1.26–1.27.

Hiring and service checks: for the defined educational entities, the affidavit now covers specified law-enforcement/child-protection and licensing investigations, charges, findings, sanctions, registry history, school work and departures, and requires consent to release employment records. A disclosure must include relevant facts, including whether an allegation was found true or false. A disclosed allegation found false by the educational entity is not itself a bar. Failure to disclose required information leads to mandatory exclusion or discharge and the new misdemeanor. The separate state-jail-felony provisions for intentional concealment in required administrator reports are not triggered by every late report or every boundary allegation; their listed conduct and intent requirements matter. Sections 22A.051(l), 22A.052(k) and 22A.055.

The employment-bar registry expands: educational entities must refuse or end both employment and services by listed people. Grounds include specified criminal histories, certificate denials/revocations, qualifying suspensions, misconduct determinations and temporary placements. Certain contract-abandonment suspensions are excluded from that suspension ground. Listings must show whether they expire; the bar ends when a listing expires and any required certificate reinstatement occurs. Authorized service providers gain access, and annual compliance certification is required. The list is not simply a list of criminal convictions. Sections 22A.151–22A.157.

Temporary action has two tracks. For a continuing and imminent threat, temporary registry placement or certificate suspension may occur without advance notice only with simultaneous hearing proceedings: a fresh probable-cause hearing within 17 days and a final hearing within 61 days of the temporary action. For an arrest for a listed offense, identity must first be verified; temporary placement or suspension lasts until final disposition, and the final administrative hearing is due within 61 days after final disposition of the related criminal charges. The arrest track does not retain the imminent-threat track’s 17-day preliminary-hearing requirement. An arrest is not a conviction, and the final administrative hearing determines the registry or certification consequence. Sections 22A.152–22A.153 and 22A.202–22A.203.

Other investigation procedures include notice and a 10-day response/hearing-request deadline for the covered noncertified-person cases, a preliminary review within 30 days to the extent feasible, and removal of specified notices when misconduct is not found. TEA can review local investigative methods, investigate directly even without a filed complaint, issue subpoenas and refer matters to law enforcement. A person surrendering a certificate during a specified misconduct investigation must agree to registry inclusion. Certification disqualifications expand to additional listed offenses and certain out-of-state/federal equivalents; a new issuance prohibition replaces the former reapplication provision. A retained, narrow 30-year-old-offense exception in the employment statute should not be confused with the separate certification rules. Sections 22A.101–22A.104, 22A.154–22A.157 and 22A.201.

Privacy and accountability: investigation records are generally confidential, with exceptions for required reports, proceedings and quarterly aggregate public reporting. Student victims’ names remain protected. Child-protection reporters’ identities may be shared with TEA or the certification board on request for specified investigations or compliance work—not made generally public. The Family Code’s abuse definition expressly adds improper educator/student relationships, and interagency investigation information must use the secure portal where required. Charter and other cross-references are updated to the new duties. Sections 1.05, 1.24, 1.29–1.38 and Article 2.