THECB outlines accelerated rulemaking to implement legislative changes, including TEOG portability and Texas Grant guarantee

The Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) told its Financial Aid Advisory Committee on Sept. 12 that agency staff are in active rulemaking to implement multiple bills from the 2025 legislative session, including changes intended to guarantee state grant awards for top high-school graduates and to make TEOG awards portable when students transfer to eligible four‑year institutions.

John Wyatt, THECB senior director for government relations, told the committee the legislature approved “a 22% increase, in fact, across the previous biennium's funding for state financial aid,” and that the additional money carried policy instructions designed to increase predictability and portability of aid.

Policy director Chris Willen walked the committee through how the agency turns statute into enforceable rule: “Statutes are the law. Rules interpret statutes,” he said, and stressed that rules published in the Texas Administrative Code must stay within the boundaries the Texas Education Code establishes.

Why it matters: committee members heard that some statutory changes take immediate effect but that the agency’s rulemaking timetable — typically a 6–9 month drafting and review cycle, a 30‑day public comment period in the Texas Register, and board adoption at one of the quarterly meetings — can create gaps between a bill’s effective date and the formal rules institutions rely on to award aid. THECB staff said they are moving some items at “warp speed” to the October board meeting and scheduling the more complex Texas Grant allocation rule changes for negotiated rulemaking and later board action.

Key program timing and details cited by staff: - FAST program rule changes required for the start of the school year were adopted at a specially called August board meeting so dual‑credit costs could be covered on day one. - Rules affecting the Armed Services Scholarship Program (TASP), a new mental‑health loan‑repayment program and a paramedic exemption are slated for the October board meeting and are currently out for public comment. - TEOG rule changes (to ensure portability and guarantee awards for top 25% high‑school graduates) are scheduled for the January board meeting because most provisions affect the 2026–27 school year. - Texas Grant (the state’s largest grant program) will go through negotiated rulemaking beginning in October and is targeted for the April 2026 board meeting because the allocation model must be revised to reflect portability and the new statutory guarantee.

Willen explained an internal reorganization of THECB’s rule chapters to make financial‑aid rules easier to find: gift aid and work‑study rules will live in a reorganized chapter 22, loan programs and servicing will move to a new chapter 24, and tuition/exemption rules will go into chapter 13. He asked committee members to review published proposals and submit formal public comments; THECB provided an inbox (sfappolicy@highered.texas.gov) for comments and said most proposed rules appear in the Texas Register about a month or two before a board meeting.

Committee reaction: institutional representatives said late‑breaking statutory changes create operational difficulties for campus awarding offices and urged THECB to minimize lag between statutory effective dates and enforced rules. Willen acknowledged the tension and asked for continued stakeholder feedback during the public comment and negotiated rulemaking processes.

What’s next: THECB staff said the October board package will be the busiest this fall. Institutions that believe they are affected should check the Texas Register for proposed rules currently out for comment, submit formal comments if they have concerns, and participate in the negotiated rulemaking for Texas Grant allocations if invited.