Senate education committee advances broad school-discipline package; substitutes adopted for three bills

A state Senate Committee on Education hearing Tuesday advanced a package of bills aimed at tightening school-discipline rules and expanding tools available to educators and district leaders.

The committee laid out a set of related measures — Senate Bills 18-71, 18-72, 18-73, 18-74 and 19-24 — and adopted committee substitutes for three of them (SB 18-71, SB 18-72 and SB 19-24) by unanimous voice or no-objection processes, sponsors and witnesses said. Senator Charles Perry introduced the discipline package and described it as a coordinated set of changes to chapter 37 of the education code and other disciplinary practices.

Why it matters: Sponsors and district officials said the measures aim to restore local authority to remove violent or persistently disruptive students from classrooms, enlarge options for placements and telehealth mental-health services, and protect teachers who follow state discipline law from retaliation. Supporters said the changes respond to increased classroom violence and disruptions that they say are driving teacher attrition and harming student learning.

Perry, the bill sponsor, said the package is intended to “holistically review how we address school discipline in our schools.” He told the committee, “If a kid hits a teacher, you get removed from a class,” and said the measures aim to keep both teachers and other students safe while preserving educational opportunities for students who are removed from a classroom.

What the bills would do (as explained at the hearing): - SB 18-71 (committee substitute adopted): Broad discipline reforms, including restoring or…