Action Alert
Keep Our Youngest Learners in School
Updated Notice: This action alert is now expired. Thank you for helping us take action.
Suspensions are both ineffective and harmful for young students and homeless students, which is why current law limits suspension for these student groups. Help oppose HB 6, which would make it easier for schools to suspend these vulnerable students for mere disruptions.
Current law sets important limits on out-of-school suspensions for pre-K through 2nd graders and homeless students, with exceptions for serious circumstances including bringing drugs or weapons to campus or assaulting someone at school. HB 6 would add another broad exception allowing schools to suspend these student groups for "repeated or significant disruption to the classroom.” This exception would eviscerate the reasonable limits on suspensions for these vulnerable students because young children are frequently disruptive by nature—a consequence of their age and development. Worse, the bill fails to define “repeated or significant disruption,” opening the door for inconsistent application. Child development research supports Texas’ current approach, which keeps the prohibition’s exceptions narrow and focused on true safety concerns. Suspension is both ineffective and harmful for young children and homeless students.
Therefore, we are asking Representatives to amend the “repeated or significant disruption” exception to "significant disruption to the classroom by assaulting a teacher or another student."
Please call and email your Texas House Representative. You can find your Representative using https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home.
Sample Email/Phone Call Script:
I am (your name), and I am a (student/teacher/parent/another concerned person) from (your city), Texas. I am writing/calling about House Bill 6 regarding school discipline. I would like to ask that you vote against it as currently written and push for the following amendment:
Amend the "repeated or significant disruption" exception to the pre-K-2nd grade and homeless student suspension ban to "significant disruption to the classroom by assaulting a teacher or another student."
This is important to me because (some options listed below or insert your own reasons):
- Excluding children from classrooms can lead to disengagement from school, missed academic opportunities, and the development of a “problem kid” reputation.
- Exclusionary practices like suspensions increase, rather than decrease, aggressive behavior among elementary-aged students.
- Suspensions do nothing to address the underlying causes of problematic behavior but may instead return a child to the very environment that created such behavior.
- Suspension is especially harmful for homeless students who have the highest dropout rates in the state and face dangers like human trafficking on the streets. School may be the only place they have access to basic necessities like a shower and meals.
I urge you to vote no on this current form of House Bill 6. Thank you for your time.