Texas Schools Crack Down: New Discipline Rules for Students

This school year, there were a lot of changes implemented that impacted students here in Texas. The biggest one is obviously the ban on personal electronics within schools.

Students are no longer allowed to use their cell phones, smart watches, tablets, or even personal Chromebooks while on campus. It's been an adjustment for many. Did you know, however, there were OTHER rules that were implemented that could impact students?

Student Violence Has Risen Since COVID

One thing schools have been dealing with is the rise in violence amongst students since they returned from the COVID-19 shutdown. I don't know if students forgot how to be around others or if their mindset changed. Either way, fights and bullying have increased since then.

Teachers have struggled to keep the peace inside and outside the classroom, which has impacted learning. However, unless it was your traditional school fight or something along those lines, there was no discipline that could be levied.

Read More: Texas Schools Enforce New Cell Phone Ban in Classrooms

House Bill 6 Allows For More Discipline

There was a bill that was introduced in the Texas legislature, and it passed, House Bill 6. This allows the teachers to more easily discipline kids who are disrupting the learning going on in the classrooms.

It's not just being sent to the principal's office. If they disrupt learning, they can be reprimanded by the principal and could face in-school or out-of-school suspension.

What All Does The Bill Allow

Most importantly, it makes it easier to hand out those suspensions. Aside from that, it changes how long those suspensions can be. In-school suspensions can range anywhere from three days to however long the school feels they need to be suspended.

The open-ended suspensions have to be reviewed every ten days, and if they feel they need to be placed in those suspensions longer, they will have the ability to. There were laws enacted back in 2017 and 2019 that limited how long they could be suspended.