As we all know by now, the 89th Legislative Session(s) brought numerous changes to the world of special education. In the midst of all of the high-profile special education legislation, one important change may have slipped through the cracks: House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 568 made changes to the requirements surrounding surveillance of special education settings.

Cabins, grounds and other buildings hit by the July 4 flood on the Guadalupe River cannot be renovated or removed, according to the order. Camp Mystic cannot alter its property by the Guadalupe River where 27 girls and the camp’s executive director died last summer, so that evidence can be preserved while a lawsuit proceeds, a judge in Austin ruled Wednesday.  The camp cannot demolish, repair or reconstruct a number of cabins where campers slept when a massive flood struck on July 4, Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said.  The camp also cannot modify its grounds or its office building, recreation hall or commissary — all points of interest in the wrongful death case filed by the parents of camper Cile Steward, whose body still has not been found. view article

School boards had until March 1 to decide whether to establish a daily period for students and staff to pray or read religious texts. view article

Houston ISD and several other area districts have voted against adopting designated prayer sessions, which are optional for students and staff under Senate Bill 11, while Magnolia ISD has approved them. All Texas districts face a March 1 deadline to make a decision about whether or not to implement them.  Galveston ISD on Wednesday became the latest local school district to reject school prayer periods, which are permitted by a new Texas law. view article

The application period will close March 17. If demand exceeds the $1 billion available, the state will prioritize students based on family income and whether they have a disability. view article

EDINBURG — The Texas Supreme Court pondered how far the state can go in limiting access to a public beach during oral arguments Thursday in a case involving the closure of Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX’s rocket launches.  Rio Grande Valley environmentalist and indigenous groups are suing the Texas General Land Office and Cameron County over a law, passed in 2013, that allows some counties to temporarily close a beach for space flight activities.   The lawsuit is among multiple waged over the years between local advocates and SpaceX as the space exploration company has continued to expand its physical footprint and the frequency of its rocket launches in South Texas. Both, activists argue, have caused harm to the local environment and impeded the public’s ability to access a beach that has to be closed off for safety when SpaceX is conducting its test launches. view article

A Pearsall Independent School District employee was arrested Wednesday afternoon after investigators found cocaine in her home, the Frio County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KSAT Investigates. view article

Former London ISD teacher Amber Prince received five years of deferred adjudication probation, including 12 days in jail each year. view article

The family of a 14-year-old student is suing McKinney ISD and former athletic trainer Lindsey Post following allegations of sexual assault and grooming.  Post was arrested and charged with two second-degree felonies after authorities reportedly discovered graphic text messages and "outcries" of sexual activity.  The suit claims the district failed to protect the minor by allowing her to be alone with Post; McKinney ISD has not yet commented. view article

The federal lawsuit argues Texas officials are engaging in religious discrimination by preventing Islamic private schools from accessing state voucher money. view article

Jurors on Thursday found two former Longview ISD educators guilty in the abuse of students in a J.L. Everhart Elementary life skills classroom. Former J.L. Everhart Principal Cassandra Renee James and former Curriculum Coordinator/Assistant Principal Linda Kay Browne Lister were both found guilty of injury to a child charges. view article

A Gregg County jury sentenced two former Longview ISD principals to probation for their roles in abusing elementary students with disabilities. Cassandra Renee James, 51, of Hallsville, and Linda Kaye Lister, 63, of Longview, were found guilty of injury to a child Thursday after a three-day trial in the 188th District Court. view article

A lawsuit has been filed against a former McKinney ISD athletic trainer who was accused of grooming, sending inappropriate messages, and sexually assaulting a student. The lawsuit also accuses the school district of allowing the 14-year-old victim to be alone with 35-year-old Lindsey Post. view article

The parents of a 14-year-old McKinney ISD student are suing the district and a former athletic trainer who was arrested for sexual assault. Lindsey Post was arrested last month on suspicion of sexual assault of a child and an improper relationship between an educator and student. The parents of the alleged victim are suing the district and Post in Collin County court. view article

AUSTIN, Texas — Most Texas school districts have declined to establish a daily prayer period after lawmakers required boards to formally consider the option under Senate Bill 11. view article

The United States Postal Service said they are aware of mail fraud for school property taxes in the Spring Branch area. The Spring Branch Independent School District's tax office confirmed to ABC13 that it has received concerns from people who've had their tax checks intercepted in the mail, the information changed, and that check fraudulently cashed. view article

The trial of two former Longview ISD educators accused of involvement in the alleged abuse of students in a J.L. Everhart Elementary life skills classroom continued Wednesday. Former J.L. Everhart Principal Cassandra Renee James and former Curriculum Coordinator/Assistant Principal Linda Kay Browne Lister each face 16 counts of injury to a child and one count of abandonment or endangerment of a child. view article

One suspect was detained on Wednesday after issuing threats to Lamesa ISD, according to a social media post by Lamesa ISD officials. The district was made aware of the threat and immediately activated threat assessment protocols and notified local authorities. view article

The United States Postal Service said they are aware of mail fraud for school property taxes in the Spring Branch area. The Spring Branch Independent School District's tax office confirmed to ABC13 that it has received concerns from people who've had their tax checks intercepted in the mail, the information changed, and that check fraudulently cashed. view article

Wambsganss vastly outspent Rehmet throughout the campaign. She raised more than $2.5 million throughout her campaign, while Rehmet raised less than $400,000. Top Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, campaigned heavily for Wambsganss, encouraging Republicans to turn out and vote.  President Trump himself posted three separate messages about Wambsganns on social media in the days leading up to the election, calling her “a highly successful Entrepreneur, and an incredible supporter of our Movement to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” as well as “a GREAT Candidate” who “has my Complete and Total Endorsement." view article

The lieutenant governor’s request to delay renewing the camp’s license came hours after parents who lost children in the July 4 flood sued the state for its alleged failure to enforce an evacuation plan requirement.  Texas should not renew the license for Camp Mystic for this summer until the deaths of 25 campers, two counselors and its executive director on July 4 are investigated and necessary changes are made to be sure lives aren’t lost in a flood there again, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged the state health commissioner in a letter Monday.   “It would be naive to allow Camp Mystic to return to normal operations before all of the facts are known,” Patrick wrote to Department of State Health Services Commissioner Jennifer Shuford. “Camp Mystic should have decided on their own to suspend operations this coming summer, but it appears they are planning for camp in 2026 and will likely be seeking your approval to operate with a renewed license.” view article

A former substitute teacher at the Point Isabel Independent School District was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison on over 20 counts of child pornography-related charges, court records show. Leif Ericson Varnum secretly recorded kindergarten students while they used a classroom restroom with the door open, according to a statement from Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz. view article

Celina ISD announced the hiring of a new athletic director, Brent Whitson, after the previous leader retired when his son was arrested for sex crimes. view article

Milo went missing. Yet it wasn’t the lost puppy that gave people the jitters — it was the promise behind the story: That a communitywide web of home security systems could transform a neighborhood into a “Search Party.” The Super Bowl commercial set off public backlash against two leading surveillance companies, Amazon, which owns Ring doorbell cameras, and Flock Safety, which makes license plate reader cameras. Within days, the e-commerce giant announced it was ditching a planned partnership with Atlanta-based Flock. view article

Evidence presented in court also showed that Hernandez was convicted in 2024 of sexual assault.  An illegal alien previously convicted of sexual assault has been sentenced to federal prison for illegally reentering the United States after being deported, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Texas announced.  Cesar Carapia-Hernandez, 42, pleaded guilty in September 2025 to federal charges of illegally entering the U.S. He was found in December 2023 after having already been deported back to Mexico in 2022.  Carapia-Hernandez was indicted by the Northern District of Texas in 2024.  According to court filings, Hernandez agreed that he was not a citizen of the U.S. at the time alleged in the indictment, had been removed back to Mexico, was found back in the country, and did not receive the consent of the U.S. Attorney General or the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to reapply for admittance, which is a violation of federal code. view article

Dallas Judge Ernest White has declared a mistrial in the county’s first capital murder case linked to the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua. After three rounds of deliberation, jurors remained deadlocked.  Carlos Zambrano Bolivar—25 years old at the time of the incident—was charged with capital murder and two counts of aggravated kidnapping in connection with the August 2024 murder of 33-year-old Nilzuly Arneaud Petit, a fellow gang member. Bolivar is one of four accused suspects.  All four suspects were reportedly in the country illegally. Each had been taken into custody after crossing the border and were released with court dates under the Biden administration, according to DHS sources. view article

Shein is the fifth China-connected company that Texas has sued this week   .Attorney General Ken Paxton is escalating his campaign against Chinese Communist Party-linked corporations, filing his fifth anti-CCP lawsuit in four days—this time targeting global fast-fashion giant Shein for allegedly poisoning consumers and compromising their data privacy. view article

The Itasca Independent School District in Hill County is warning families after a former high school student was arrested for creating AI‑generated pornography using photos of teachers and students, according to district officials. The district says the former student took photos of students and staff on Itasca ISD campuses and in neighboring districts, then used an artificial‑intelligence platform to alter them into nude and sexually explicit images digitally. view article

A federal judge temporarily banned Houston Independent School District (HISD), Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD), and Plano Independent School District (PISD) from enforcing sections 3,7,24, and 27 of Senate Bill 12 (SB 12). view article

A Kindergarten teacher at J.H. Hines Elementary School was arrested Thursday after school police say she twisted the arm of a 5-year-old student behind his back and put her knee in his back after the boy broke a pencil. Waco Independent School District police arrested Pamela Mitchell, 64, on an injury to a child count, a third-degree felony punishable up to 10 years in prison. view article

 A former Texas 10 Most Wanted criminal has been sentenced to nearly four decades in prison for impregnating a young girl in 2024. The man, an undocumented immigrant living in Harris County at the time of his arrest, was captured after a weeks-long investigation into a child sex abuse and smuggling of minor investigation.  view article

Paxton began investigating the East Plano Islamic Center in March for potential violations of consumer protection laws.  Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the directors of a municipal utility district in the second case from his office aimed at impeding the development of a master-planned community initially marketed to Muslims.  The East Plano Islamic Center has pitched a residential development, formerly called EPIC City, with more than 1,000 residential units, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and retail shops outside of Dallas. The project drew numerous state investigations last year — some for unclear reasons — including one from Paxton, who said in March he was looking into potential violations of consumer protection laws.   T  he suit alleges that Double R Municipal Utility District in Hunt and Collin counties was improperly transferred to a new, ineligible board of directors in September to help the planned community develop in the district. That same day, the new board also approved adding about 400 acres to its district at the request of Community Capital Partners, one of the development companies for the planned community. view article

Paxton said his office is examining claims that administrators and faculty helped organize the demonstrations.   The move, announced Monday, targets North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Dallas Independent School District and Manor Independent School District, following a similar inquiry into the Austin Independent School District. Paxton said his office is also examining claims that administrators and faculty helped organize the demonstrations.   “I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda,” Paxton said in a statement. “Let this serve as a warning to any public school official or employee who unlawfully facilitates student participation in protests targeting our heroic law enforcement officers: my office will use every legal tool available to hold you accountable.” view article

A Pearland High School theatre teacher is on administrative leave and under investigation by the Pearland Police Department, KPRC 2 has learned. “Please be assured that the safety and well-being of our students and staff remain our top priority,” said Aliana Wynn, Pearland ISD’s director of communications. Families were not notified about the teacher’s investigation. view article

San Antonio’s North East Independent School District is under investigation for allegedly facilitating student protests against U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday. view article