Highlights from final weekend of Texas legislative session
The final day of the Texas Legislature's 85th session was Monday.
Highlights from the final weekend of the session, as reported by the Texas Association of School Administrators:
"A compromise version of HB 22, which makes changes to the A-F accountability system, is on its way to the governor. SB 463, which extends Individual Graduation Committees, and the cyberbullying law, SB 179, known as 'David’s Law,' were also passed. HB 515, which would have originally eliminated some state-required assessments, died in conference committee."
An announcement on whether Gov. Greg Abbott will call a special session is expected this week. "As a reminder: The Texas Constitution requires lawmakers to meet every two years for no more than 140 days. Beyond that, the governor can call the Legislature back for as many special sessions as he wants, with each lasting up to 30 days. Special sessions are limited to topics on which the governor calls the session, although legislators can file bills on other topics that the governor can choose to add to the agenda. State officials have said the cost of a 30-day special session could be $800,000 or more, based on the $150 per day per diem for lawmakers plus expenses such as utilities, staff, security, etc.," TASA reports.