Presented by Rep. Valorie Swanson (R-R) Bell’s House (HB) 1149 That seeks to amend state education law to require school district employees to obtain written consent from a parent before conducting a psychiatric or psychiatric examination or treatment on a student.
The provision includes any “psychological or psychiatric examination” designed to gather information about a child regarding an attitude, habit, trait, opinion, belief, feeling or mental disorder. “Examination” is also defined to include any survey, check-in, or academic lesson that includes “built-in” psychological testing methods.
Treatments include the administration of systemic approaches and medications aimed at affecting the behavior or “behavioral characteristics” of the child.
This trend in the legislature toward expanding parental rights to education has also prompted “Parental Rights Act” of the Senate, that allows for transparency and review opportunities for the curriculum, Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) Reader Codewhich requires parental permission for students to access “sex-related materials” in school libraries.
State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) also led the effort Termination of child sex modification treatments.
These types of interventions have been widespread It was discussed and discussed regarding its origins and efficacy. Recent reviews of Gender Affirmation clinics have seen a “significant and sharp rise in referrals,” leading many to argue that there are “significant gaps in the research base supporting the clinical management of children and young people with gender ambivalence and gender dysphoria, including Appropriate methods of assessment and treatment.
Recently polling It found that a majority of Texans agree with these lawmakers in their goal to add transparency to or outright ban the administration of these types of treatments to children; 65% support legislation banning changing the sex of a child on their birth certificate, and 57% support classifying gender affirmation care as child abuse.
The Swanson Bill states that any school district employee who engages in the “systematic use of a method” that affects the behavioral and emotional characteristics of a child must obtain parental consent.
This would conflict with Current recommendations from the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) It includes a process for how transgender students should be treated on campus, including steps for “non-permanent school records reflecting preferred names or nicknames that are not the student’s legal first name.” TASB advised that school personnel should “work closely” with students who identify as transgender, citing a hypothesis where a school employee addresses a student “by his preferred name at school but to refer to the student by the name on the birth certificate in all communications with the parents.”
In addition, the TASB recommends that “school districts and their staff should use caution in releasing information about a transgender student and seek guidance from the district attorney when in doubt,” citing the circumstances surrounding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protections.
FerpaA federal law passed in 1974, relating to parents’ rights to access their children’s education records, their rights to change records, and to control the disclosure of personal and educational information.
You must follow Texas Schools Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), state standards that are implemented as part of the instructions for each class level. TEKS incorporates a foundation of Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which includes how to “develop children’s awareness of self-identity, as well as recognition of multiple perspectives, difference and diversity, biases, and the social and cultural context in which they live.”
Pleasanton ISD spent over $40,000 to consolidate the SEL curriculum Called 7 Mindsets in their area. the 7 mindsets The organization promotes its curriculum as a progression “along a continuum that deepens engagement with and understanding of the mindsets and competencies of SEL.” The curriculum uses a “data genius assessment module” in which school staff and teachers administer surveys and assessments to students, collect data, and “run SEL aptitude tests.”
Public testimony on a House committee this week will seek to answer the question of whether SEL approaches constitute a systematic method for influencing a child’s personality, psychological examination or treatment.