Committee adopts substitute for school‑safety cleanup bill; TEA commissioning, special‑education safeguards and drone vendors draw testimony

The Senate Committee on Education K‑16 adopted the committee substitute for Senate Bill 12 62, a school‑safety “cleanup” bill from Sen. Charles Nichols, and heard extended testimony from state safety officials, a TEA resource witness, district safety staff and private vendors including a company proposing remotely piloted less‑lethal drones to confront active shooters.

The substitute, sent up by Sen. Paxton and adopted without objection, would allow the Texas Education Agency to commission peace officers for school‑safety purposes so those officers could support local law enforcement during emergencies; require that a “good cause” exception to the armed‑guard requirement be renewed on an annual basis; create a report based on intruder‑detection audits and vulnerability assessments; and require that behavioral threat‑assessment teams handling cases involving students with disabilities include a person knowledgeable about the student’s disability.

The provisions are framed as technical follow‑ups to House Bill 3 and other recent school‑safety work. Sen. Nichols said the bill “follows up on the good work that was done” and that the substitute reflects requests from the Texas School Safety Center.

TEA an…