800 New Laws Went into effect in Texas today.

On September 1, 2025, more than 800 new laws went into effect in Texas, stemming from the 89th Texas Legislature’s regular session and signed by Governor Greg Abbott. These laws cover a wide range of areas, including education, public safety, property taxes, healthcare, and more.

Education-Related Laws

1. Senate Bill 2 (School Vouchers): Establishes one of the nation’s largest school voucher programs, allowing public tax dollars to fund private school tuition and other educational expenses. This is a divisive measure aimed at expanding parental choice in education.

2. Senate Bill 10 (Ten Commandments Display): Requires public elementary, middle, and high schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom on a 16” x 20” poster, either purchased with taxpayer funds or donated. A federal judge temporarily blocked this law for some districts due to a lawsuit, but Attorney General Ken Paxton instructed other districts to comply.

3. Senate Bill 11 (Prayer and Religious Study): Allows school districts to adopt policies providing students and staff a daily period for prayer or reading religious texts, such as the Bible, with a consent form for participation.

4. Senate Bill 12 (DEI Ban in K-12 Schools): Extends the ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies to public K-12 schools, prohibiting consideration of race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation in hiring decisions. It also bans teaching gender identity and sexual orientation and requires parental opt-in for sex education. Teachers are prohibited from using pronouns that do not match a student’s assigned sex at birth.

5. House Bill 2 (Public School Funding): Provides $8.5 billion in new funding for public schools to support teacher and staff salaries, educator preparation, special education, safety requirements, and early childhood learning.

6. House Bill 27 (Financial Literacy): Requires all Texas public high school students to complete a one-half credit course in personal financial literacy.

7. House Bill 33 (Uvalde Strong Act): Addresses issues from the 2022 Uvalde school shooting by improving police training and requiring annual meetings between officers and school officials to develop active shooter response plans.

8. Cellphone Ban: Prohibits students from using personal communication devices (e.g., cell phones, iPads, Apple Watches) on school property during the school day. Students must carry printed or written schedules instead of accessing them on phones.

9. Senate Bill 13 (Library Advisory Councils): Allows school boards to establish library advisory councils if petitioned by 10% of parents (or 50 parents, whichever is fewer) to control library materials, effectively enabling book bans.

10. Senate Bill 2929 (Spectator Behavior at Events): Grants officials at school extracurricular events authority to eject spectators for inappropriate behavior without prior warning, effective for the 2025-2026 school year.

Public Safety and Criminal Justice

1. House Bill 2000 (Audrii’s Law): Closes a loophole in the sex offender registry, requiring those convicted of child grooming to register as sex offenders. Named after 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, killed by a perpetrator not listed on the registry.

2. Senate Bill 40 (Ban on Nonprofit Bail Funds): Prohibits counties, cities, and local governments from using taxpayer money to fund nonprofit organizations that post bail for criminal defendants. Taxpayers or residents can sue for injunctive relief and recover attorney fees if violated.

3. Senate Bill 412 (Protections for Judicial and Law Enforcement): Amends the Texas Penal Code to protect judicial and law enforcement officers charged with offenses involving obscene or harmful material to children if acting in their official duties, removing prior protections for educational or medical purposes. Applies to actions on or after September 1, 2025.

4. Senate Bill 463 (Workplace Violence Prevention): Broadens the definition of “facility” to include home and community support service agencies, hospitals, nursing facilities, and others, ensuring more organizations must comply with workplace violence prevention requirements.

5. Senate Bill 305 (Move Over Law Expansion): Expands the requirement to slow down or move over for stopped emergency vehicles to include tow trucks, garbage trucks, TxDOT trucks, animal control vehicles, and parking enforcement vehicles. Violations carry fines of $500–$1,250.

6. Sexual Images of Children: Bans possession of obscene images depicting minors, including computer-generated or AI-created material, cartoons, or animations. Violations are a state jail felony, with up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine, with harsher penalties for repeat offenders.