Texas colleges obtain new steering on scholar well being care

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s each day publication that retains readers on top of things on essentially the most important Texas information.

Texas’ new parental consent legislation doesn’t stop nurses from administering fundamental health-related companies like offering Band-Aids or checking a scholar’s temperature, in response to up to date state steering despatched to highschool district directors on Thursday.

The Texas Education Agency’s revised guidance got here in response to widespread confusion about Senate Bill 12, a sweeping state legislation that features a requirement for colleges to acquire written approval from mother and father earlier than providing to college students routine well being help and medicine or conducting medical procedures.

School districts are required to take disciplinary motion in opposition to any workers who present such companies to college students with out parental consent. Some districts had interpreted the legislation as requiring consent for each non-emergency, health-related circumstance. SB 12’s authors final week urged schooling officers to make clear that the intense ranges of warning exercised by some districts weren’t vital for what the lawmakers think about “common sense” practices.

The new guidance, which can endure additional adjustments, makes an attempt to make a transparent distinction between well being care companies and health-related companies.

Health care companies, in response to the memo issued Thursday, contain medical remedy, medical procedures or shelling out treatment, or administering a psychological or psychiatric check or remedy. Those companies require parental consent earlier than colleges can present them.

On the opposite hand, the schooling company outlined health-related companies as “short-term” and “noninvasive” actions that promote college students’ well-being, corresponding to first support, counseling, or psychological and bodily well being screenings. Schools ought to assume they’ve consent to offer such companies except a father or mother opts their youngsters out of them.

The company additionally notified districts that it expects them to offer mother and father with consent types detailing the varieties of companies college students can obtain from their colleges and to provide households the choice to decide out of every one, versus the all-or-nothing method some colleges have reportedly taken.

SB 12, signed into legislation earlier this yr, bans variety, fairness and inclusion practices; instruction on sexual orientation or gender id; and LGBTQ+ scholar golf equipment. It is an element of a bigger effort by Texas Republicans to form how public colleges interact with college students and their households on subjects like race, racism, gender and intercourse.

School nurses, whom the Tribune couldn’t instantly attain for remark Thursday, mentioned final week that consent is a core tenet of their occupation and that they’ve all the time sought mother and father’ permission for something past routine care.

SB 12’s so-called “parental rights” provisions, which embody the consent necessities, have drawn vital consideration within the early weeks of the 2025-26 faculty yr. A Beaumont mom said her son was despatched dwelling coated in vomit and that his faculty didn’t deal with him as a result of she had not signed a waiver. Families in Fort Worth reported not receiving their consent types till 4 days after the legislation took impact on Sept. 1.

Nurses advised the Tribune that some districts delayed sending out the consent types to folks as a result of they had been awaiting steering from the Texas Association of School Boards and the schooling company. They didn’t obtain the state’s initial correspondence till days earlier than SB 12 formally grew to become legislation.

Disclosure: Texas Association of School Boards has been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Find an entire listing of them right here.

Three featured TribFest audio system confirmed! You don’t wish to miss ​​Deb Haaland, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and 2026 Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor; state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston and 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and Jake Tapper, anchor of CNN’s “The Lead” and “State of the Union” on the fifteenth annual Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get your tickets today!

TribFest 2025 is introduced by JPMorganChase.