🔴Relating to discipline management and access to telehealth mental health services in public schools.
HB 6
🔴 HB 6: Texas school discipline overhaul shifts power and oversight
What it says it does:
HB 6 is framed as a way to give teachers stronger tools to manage classroom disruptions. It lets them remove disruptive students, requires “return-to-class” plans before a student comes back, expands suspension powers for principals, authorizes virtual alternative education programs, and adds crisis training options for parents of special education students.
What it actually changes:
It allows a teacher to remove a student after a single incident and block their return without any guaranteed appeal process. It repeals the rule requiring an ARD meeting before disciplining a student with a disability for behavior tied to that disability. It allows districts to create virtual discipline programs with no clear standards or audit requirements. It gives certain charter schools new power to reject students with criminal records. It grants teachers and administrators broad immunity for disciplinary actions taken “in good faith.”
Who is pushing for it:
Support listed in the files includes the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, the Texas Association of School Boards, and groups representing school administrators.
Who benefits:
Charter networks gain new authority to screen out high-need students. Private vendors offering virtual alternative programs and crisis training can now access public funds without clear state oversight. School administrators and boards get more control and less liability.
Who gets left out or exposed:
Students with disabilities lose individualized protection from inappropriate punishment. Black and brown students, already over-disciplined in Texas, face greater risk of removal. Low-income parents lose leverage to challenge decisions. Communities relying on public classrooms lose transparency about who is educating their children and how public money is spent.
Why this matters long term:
HB 6 quietly shifts decision-making power from families and local checks to administrators and outside vendors. It normalizes virtual punishment schools and broad carveouts for charters. It weakens due process and creates a precedent for privatizing discipline while making oversight harder.
What to watch next:
Watch for the growth of unregulated virtual discipline programs, future bills expanding vendor access to special education funds, and more legal carveouts for charters. Track whether districts adopt real safeguards for equity or use this law to offload hard-to-teach students.
Bottom line:
HB 6 is not just about classroom safety. It is a structural transfer of power and public money that removes protections for vulnerable students while opening new avenues for private profit with little public oversight.