Texas Bills Explained

2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

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2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB800

SB800 adds a required video to new-student sexual-misconduct policy orientations and adds the National Sexual Assault Hotline to student ID cards at public higher-education institutions.

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Official caption: Relating to a public institution of higher education's sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking resources and policy orientation.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Zaffirini. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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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.

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What does it do?

SB800 adds a required video to new-student sexual-misconduct policy orientations and adds the National Sexual Assault Hotline to student ID cards at public higher-education institutions. The orientation provision uses the broader statutory term “postsecondary educational institution,” which includes public institutions and qualifying private or independent colleges and universities. The ID-card provision uses the public-institution definition. Signed June 20, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. Final act; Orientation scope; Public and qualifying private institutions; History.

The video must identify the institution’s Title IX coordinators and deputy coordinators, give the Title IX office’s location and contact information, explain its services and how to report sexual assault to the institution, provide information about the crime victims’ compensation program, and list local community and statewide organizations supporting sexual-assault survivors. This is an information requirement, not a new compensation eligibility rule. Section 1.

The existing orientation requirement continues to apply to each entering freshman and undergraduate transfer student before or during the first enrolled semester or term. Institutions still set its format and content within the required elements, and may provide it online. It must still include the existing statements about prompt hospital treatment and evidence preservation when applicable, reporting to the institution and receiving a prompt and equitable resolution, and choosing whether to report a crime to law enforcement with institutional assistance or decline to report it. The added video requirement applies beginning with the 2025–2026 academic year. Sections 1 and 4; Retained orientation and victim-rights statements.

Public institutions must print National Sexual Assault Hotline contact information on student identification cards issued on or after September 1, 2025. Existing required suicide-prevention and Crisis Text Line contacts remain, as do optional campus/local police, health-clinic and local suicide-prevention contacts. The act does not require replacement of all previously issued cards. Sections 2, 3 and 5; Prior ID-card rule and scope.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill required the video to identify Title IX coordinators, office location/contact information and services. The Senate committee, engrossed and House committee versions retained that substantive plan; the committee text’s visible change in the comparison is formatting rather than a new substantive duty. All five versions.

Three House amendments were adopted May 27: Goodwin added reporting instructions and crime-victim compensation information; Walle added the sexual-assault hotline to newly issued ID cards; Rose added the local and statewide survivor-support organization list. Reynolds’s fourth amendment, which would have added information on campus-culture and safety best practices involving student organizations, including fraternities and sororities, failed. That proposed requirement is not in the final law. The Senate concurred May 30. Goodwin amendment; Walle amendment; Rose amendment; Failed Reynolds amendment; Dispositions; History.

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?

Students receive more concrete directions to campus and outside help, while institutions must prepare or revise videos and public institutions must update newly issued ID cards. Those changes may make resources easier to find, but the act does not measure or guarantee fewer assaults, successful complaints or compensation awards. It does not require an annual orientation for every continuing student. Required information and covered students.

All four fiscal-note records were reviewed. The final available May 28 note anticipates no significant state or local-government fiscal impact and assumes associated costs can be absorbed using existing resources. It does not supply a per-campus video or card-printing estimate. The House’s 94 affirmative votes were below the immediate-effect threshold, so the September 1, 2025 fallback date applies. Final fiscal note; Certified votes and date clause.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.