Bill Text: TX HB4821 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to speech protections for student media publications in public schools.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2025-04-03 - Referred to Public Education [HB4821 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB4821-Introduced.html

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89R3153 ANG-F
By: Hinojosa H.B. No. 4821

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to speech protections for student media publications in
public schools.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter Z, Chapter 25, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 25.905 to read as follows:
Sec. 25.905. STUDENT MEDIA PUBLICATIONS. (a) In this
section:
(1) "Protected speech" means speech protected by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution or by Section 8,
Article I, Texas Constitution. The term does not include speech
that:
(A) is obscene;
(B) is defamatory, libelous, or slanderous;
(C) constitutes a clear, unwarranted invasion of
privacy;
(D) violates a federal or state law to the extent
that law conforms to the United States Constitution or the Texas
Constitution;
(E) advertises or promotes the purchase of a
product or service that is unlawful for purchase by minors;
(F) is intended to incite the imminent commission
of a crime or violation of school policy and is likely to produce
that result; or
(G) substantially disrupts a school's operation.
(2) "Student media publication" means any material
that is primarily prepared, written, published, or broadcast by
students enrolled at a school district campus who are under the
direction of a student media publication advisor if the material is
distributed or generally made available to students enrolled at the
campus. The term does not include material intended for
distribution only in the classroom in which the material is
produced.
(3) "Student media publication advisor" means an
individual employed or designated by a school district or campus of
a district to supervise or provide instruction relating to student
media publications.
(b) A student is entitled to exercise freedom of speech and
freedom of the press in producing any student media publication,
including by determining the content of the publication so long as
the content constitutes protected speech, regardless of whether the
publication is produced using the school district's money,
equipment, or facilities or in conjunction with any class in which
the student is enrolled. A student may not be disciplined for
acting in accordance with this subsection.
(c) Subsection (b) may not be construed to prohibit a
student media publication advisor from teaching professional
standards of English and journalism to students.
(d) A student media publication advisor may not be subjected
to disciplinary action or any other form of punishment or
retaliation for acting to protect or refusing to infringe on a
student's rights as provided by this section.
(e) The content of a student media publication may not be
construed as the policy or position of the campus at which the
publication is produced or the school district in which the campus
is located.
(f) A school district, a student media publication advisor
of a district campus, or any employee of the district is not liable
in any civil or criminal action for the content of a student media
publication produced by students enrolled at a district campus
unless the district, advisor, or employee acted with wilful or
wanton misconduct in permitting the publication to be produced.
(g) The board of trustees of a school district shall adopt a
written policy establishing rules regarding students' right to
exercise freedom of speech and freedom of the press in producing any
student media publication.
(h) The policy adopted under Subsection (g) may include:
(1) reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and
manner of student expression in a student media publication if
those restrictions:
(A) are necessary to further a compelling school
district interest and are the least restrictive means of furthering
that interest;
(B) employ clear, published, content-neutral,
and viewpoint-neutral criteria; and
(C) leave open ample alternative means of
expression; and
(2) limitations on speech that is not protected
speech, including speech the board of trustees defines as profane,
harassing, threatening, or intimidating.
(i) A school administrator shall:
(1) interpret the policy adopted under Subsection (g)
in accordance with law; and
(2) determine whether a student media publication
includes speech that is not protected.
(j) A student, individually or through the student's parent
or person standing in parental relation to the student, whose
freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or expressive rights have
been violated under this section or a student media publication
advisor may bring an action for injunctive relief to compel the
school district to comply with this section.
(k) In addition to the injunctive relief under Subsection
(j), a person whose freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or
expressive rights are affected by a policy adopted by a school
district under this section may file suit against the district for
declaratory judgment in the manner provided by Chapter 37, Civil
Practice and Remedies Code.
SECTION 2. Section 12.104(b), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) An open-enrollment charter school is subject to:
(1) a provision of this title establishing a criminal
offense;
(2) the provisions in Chapter 554, Government Code;
and
(3) a prohibition, restriction, or requirement, as
applicable, imposed by this title or a rule adopted under this
title, relating to:
(A) the Public Education Information Management
System (PEIMS) to the extent necessary to monitor compliance with
this subchapter as determined by the commissioner;
(B) criminal history records under Subchapter C,
Chapter 22;
(C) reading instruments and accelerated reading
instruction programs under Section 28.006;
(D) accelerated instruction under Section
28.0211;
(E) high school graduation requirements under
Section 28.025;
(F) special education programs under Subchapter
A, Chapter 29;
(G) bilingual education under Subchapter B,
Chapter 29;
(H) prekindergarten programs under Subchapter E
or E-1, Chapter 29, except class size limits for prekindergarten
classes imposed under Section 25.112, which do not apply;
(I) extracurricular activities under Section
33.081;
(J) discipline management practices or behavior
management techniques under Section 37.0021;
(K) health and safety under Chapter 38;
(L) the provisions of Subchapter A, Chapter 39;
(M) public school accountability and special
investigations under Subchapters A, B, C, D, F, G, and J, Chapter
39, and Chapter 39A;
(N) the requirement under Section 21.006 to
report an educator's misconduct;
(O) intensive programs of instruction under
Section 28.0213;
(P) the right of a school employee to report a
crime, as provided by Section 37.148;
(Q) bullying prevention policies and procedures
under Section 37.0832;
(R) the right of a school under Section 37.0052
to place a student who has engaged in certain bullying behavior in a
disciplinary alternative education program or to expel the student;
(S) the right under Section 37.0151 to report to
local law enforcement certain conduct constituting assault or
harassment;
(T) a parent's right to information regarding the
provision of assistance for learning difficulties to the parent's
child as provided by Sections 26.004(b)(11) and 26.0081(c) and (d);
(U) establishment of residency under Section
25.001;
(V) school safety requirements under Sections
37.0814, 37.108, 37.1081, 37.1082, 37.1083, 37.1084, 37.1085,
37.1086, 37.109, 37.113, 37.114, 37.1141, 37.115, 37.207, and
37.2071 and Subchapter J, Chapter 37;
(W) the early childhood literacy and mathematics
proficiency plans under Section 11.185;
(X) the college, career, and military readiness
plans under Section 11.186; [and]
(Y) parental options to retain a student under
Section 28.02124; and
(Z) speech protections for student media
publications under Section 25.905.
SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with the 2025-2026
school year.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.