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

The City of Conroe has finally reached an agreement with Willis ISD to provide water and sewer services to multiple schools. This comes after more than six months of legal wrangling. The agreement was only reached after a dramatic meeting where the mayor asked police to clear the council chambers after councilwoman Marsha Porter brought up the Texas Open Meetings Act. view article

A Travis County Special Grand Jury has declined to indict former Manor ISD Police Department Officer Kristopher House in connection with a 2024 use-of-force incident involving a juvenile. Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that the grand jury concluded its review of the February 20, 2024, incident and did not return an indictment on February 12, 2026. view article

You might have thought the latest Legislative session was a significant change to public education, and you are right. But the most significant change to public education in Texas came from the institution of Districts of Innovation (DOI). For years, public schools complained that they were being compared to charter schools and that was not an apples-to-apples comparison, but DOIs provide school districts the freedom to opt out of many of the laws and requirements with which charter schools are not saddled.

The 89th legislative session has produced a staggering number of changes to the landscape of Texas education. Perhaps one of the more jarring changes was the addition of chapter 26A to the Texas Education Code. This new chapter codifies the grievance provisions that school districts are required to implement in policy. Some of the requirements in the Chapter simply mirror the procedures already common amongst school districts, such as the use of a multi-tiered grievance appeal process. Others, however, depart from the usual grievance procedures or create new procedures entirely. This article will highlight some of the largest departures from past grievance procedures and discuss the implications of these changes for Texas school districts.

My favorite article that I have written over the years is one on official state holidays and recognitions. I find it fascinating to see which lobbyists succeed in recognitions for their cause. I look at this calendar and wonder why Monarch butterflies and veterinarian technicians get their own week, Lung Cancers Awareness gets only one day, Gold Star mothers get a day but not fathers, and there are no recognition days in December? Did you know that the 11 th day of each month is a recognition “day?”

In case you are running low on things to worry about this semester, never fear. This article is dedicated to the False Claims Act (FCA), another tool the federal government appears happy to point in the direction of public schools.

Governments rely on private contractors, or vendors. Many times, using a vendor is either more efficient, less expensive, or gives the government access to expertise that it does not have. Given the ubiquitous nature of contracts with the private sector, devoting some time and attention to your vendor contracts is important.

During the 89th Regular Legislative Session, HB 6 made a number of changes to Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code and the content of the 2025-2026 Student Code of Conduct. Many of these changes will likely be welcomed by Texas public schools, such as the ability to have more discretion in the determination of appropriate behavioral consequences for a student found in possession of a VAPE device.

If you’re one of the many Texas school districts operating under a District of Innovation (DOI) Plan, you’ve already embraced flexibility and local control. But with each legislative session, it becomes increasingly important to reevaluate whether your plan still fits within the legal boundaries.

During the 87th (2021) legislative session, the Legislature quietly expanded the authority of the Commissioner to investigate complaints against public schools and intervene beyond accreditation matters. These legislative revisions to Chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code (TEC) are resulting in a new wave of investigations into locally controlled policies and procedures like school district discipline procedures, bullying and harassment policies, and even student record keeping—previously considered the domain of local school officials and beyond the reach of officials in Austin. As a result, filing a complaint with TEA’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has become the weapon of choice for anyone disgruntled with the actions of a public school.

A Garland ISD employee is on administrative leave after allegedly taking photos of a female elementary school student while she was in the restroom. The incident reportedly took place during the week of March 29 at Abbett Elementary, according to an email sent to parents on Thursday, April 1. view article

Pursuant to subsection 38.001(f) of the Education Code, the Legislature provided that a student who has not received the immunizations required by law “for reasons of conscience, including because of the person’s religious beliefs, may be excluded from school in times of emergency or epidemic declared by the commissioner of public health.” Read in context, a court likely would conclude that this exception does not permit exclusion of students who lack vaccinations unrelated to an existing "epidemic" contemplated by subsection 38.001(f). view article

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On May 4, 2020, the Department of Education (“DOE”) issued new Title IX regulations, which direct how educational institutions receiving federal funds must address reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault involving both students and employees. view article

At SL&A, we offer a full array of legal services for our school law clients throughout Texas. We strive to deliver a high-level of client service through teamwork, calling upon our attorneys’ decades of public and private experience to provide practical solutions and advice for all school needs. view article

Officers with the Hudson ISD Police Department arrested a former math teacher for the school district on Monday in connection to allegations that he had an improper relationship with a high school student that included sexual contact. view article

On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) officially filed a grievance against the Wimberley Independent School District, according to our partners at the Austin-American Statesman. The grievance is the result of an email Superintendent Dwain York sent to some parents in December 2019 regarding the altering of the district's logo to include the colors of the gay pride flag, according to the Statesman. view article

A former student has filed a lawsuit against Dallas ISD after he lost his status as his high school’s salutatorian a day before graduation due to a last minute change in rankings. In June, the district apologized after class rankings at Woodrow Wilson High School were changed right before graduation because of a calculation error. Now a former student is suing Dallas ISD, claiming that the change will affect his applications to universities and employers. view article

Terry Burchett, 69, was arrested in South Carolina on February 18 on charges of child pornography. He was found to be in possession of over 9,800 sexually explicit images of children according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. view article

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Irving ISD and the city of Irving by Ahmed Mohamed's family, according to Dallas Morning News. Ahmed made headlines when he was 14 years old and made a clock in school that was mistaken for a bomb in 2015. His family stated that his civil rights were violated when he was arrested at MacArthur High School and charged with making a "hoax bomb." The charge was later dropped, but he was still suspended. view article

A Lockhart High School science teacher has been arrested for having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old male student. Sarah Fowlkes started at the district in October 2014. On March 10, 2017 a school administrator reached out to Lockhart Police after receiving a "concerning report." LPD launched an investigation and determined Fowlkes was engaged in sexual contact with the student. view article

The plaintiffs continued building their case Tuesday in the instance of a student at Lewisville ISD who is suing the school for Title IX violations. The girl was 14 years old when she said she went to a high school party and got sexually assaulted by two high school football players at Hebron, a school in the Lewisville district. view article

When Deron Harrington filed a lawsuit on behalf of three parents in May 2015, he was trying to make sure the district where his kids attended school was following student truancy laws. He had a hunch that wasn't the case. At the time, Fort Bend ISD was making headlines for referring thousands of students to the county's specialized truancy court. Data showed a disproportionate number of the district's students referred to truancy court were African-American. As a lawyer, Harrington thought he could make a difference. view article

On March 11, 2016, the Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on the implementation of SB 507. This new law requires video surveillance of certain special education settings upon request beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. In an earlier blog post, I outlined the provisions of SB 507. view article