Following years of complaints about the sexualization of children in government schools, lawmakers passed several pieces of legislation that address concerns of parents and citizens in the fight to protect Texas children.
School districts have begun implementing the new laws, though many parents and local citizens continue to raise concerns about materials available to children.
Parental Bill of Rights
Former State Sen. Brandon Creighton authored Senate Bill 12, known as the “Parents Bill of Rights,” which addresses several aspects of government education, including curriculum utilized, information available to parents, gender and DEI policies, and student clubs.
Most notably, the legislation protects parents’ fundamental rights “granted to parents by their Creator and upheld by the United States Constitution, the Texas Constitution, and the laws of this state” to direct the religious education of their children, make decisions regarding their child’s education, and authorize consent for medical treatments.
The law disallows any government school, secondary school, state government, or state political subdivision from infringing on parents’ decision-making authority regarding their children.
All schools are now required to post the syllabi that will be used during the school year in a place where parents have access to them. All school records, including school library materials checked out, must be accessible to parents.
The measure further requires parental consent for children to attend any school clubs and disallows any DEI or LGBT-focused clubs. The measure took effect on September 1.
In New Braunfels Independent School District, the “Alphabet Soup” club, a seemingly LGBT-focused middle school club, was paused by the school district.
NBISD also closed the school library for 10 days to review books to ensure compliance with Senate Bill 13, another law passed to protect children from sexual ideology and increase transparency in content accessible to children in school libraries.
During the closure, the district identified at least 80 books that need to be reviewed, with several having already been determined to contain content that is not in compliance with the law by the time the library was reopened.
Library Books
Senate Bill 13 strengthens parental rights by giving parents more authority over the materials their children are allowed to check out at school libraries. The legislation also creates statewide content standards and authorizes local school library advisory councils to help evaluate materials for the system.
Authored by State Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney), the legislation builds upon and clarifies legislation passed in 2023 that sought to keep sexually explicit material out of school libraries. It gives specific definitions for terms such as “harmful material,” “indecent content,” and “library material.” Districts were also given specific guidelines for library materials with these terms.
According to the legislation, school districts have the option of creating a library advisory council. Now, if 10 percent of parents or 50 total submit a petition—whichever is smaller—the board must create a council. The majority of the members on the advisory board are required to be parents of enrolled students and not employees of the district.
The law took effect in September, although districts were required to establish policies before the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
During the summer, the Texas Library Association circulated a document to school district libraries statewide with information on implementing Senate Bill 12, downplaying the law’s book removal requirements. In the document, TLA answers the question, “Will I have to remove materials that were previously purchased that do not meet these guidelines?” with a simple no.
Paxton told Texas Scorecard that she does not believe the legislation allows districts to keep profane, indecent, or sexually explicit material simply because it was acquired pre-SB 13.
However, there are no provisions in SB 13 that require a full audit of books that were on the library shelves before the legislation took effect.
No Phones at School
Lawmakers also passed legislation requiring school districts to implement policies prohibiting students from having access to personal electronic devices, such as cell phones and iPads.
With bipartisan support, House Bill 1481 took immediate effect in June. The legislation does give discretion concerning the extent of the enforcement of the law to the school districts, which ranges from completely prohibiting possession of a personal device while on campus to merely banning cell phone use during class and requiring students to keep it in their backpacks.
Ten Commandments in Classrooms
State Sen. Phil King (R–Weatherford) authored Senate Bill 10, which requires the display of the Ten Commandments in both elementary and secondary government school classrooms if they are donated.
Before even taking effect, the law was met with lawsuits that have halted many school districts from enforcing it.
Due to the injunctions, some school districts did not comply with the law even though they were outside the injunction’s jurisdiction and had been directed to do so by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton proceeded to sue these districts because of their non-compliance.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals is set to hear arguments on the case, along with a similar case in Louisiana, on January 20.
