Texas law strengthens vape rules, relaxes weed penalties at schools

A new Texas law will take effect Friday that eases punishment for students found on campus with marijuana, but it requires districts to remove most students from their school and placed in an alternative education program if they're found with an e-cigarette.

House Bill 114, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in June, gives districts more flexibility in dealing with students found with marijuana but adds state requirements for those found with vaping devices.

Under existing state law, students were automatically expelled for possessing tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound found in marijuana, which is what makes people feel "high", or more than 4 ounces of marijuana — the amount at which possession becomes a felony. Those students were placed in a juvenile justice alternative education program. Students found on a campus with less than 4 ounces of marijuana were transferred to their district’s alternative education program.

The new law will ease the punishment for students found with marijuana at school. Those students will be referred to the district’s alternative education program, but districts won’t have to expel the student and can decide how long to keep the student out of their home campus.

However, the law strengthens punishments for students found with an e-cigarette.

An e-cigarette is an electronic device that lets people inhale vapor, often nicotine.

Districts aren't currently required to take any disciplinary action, but come Friday, students found with a vaping device on campus must be placed in an alternative education program in the district.

The law was originally focused on marijuana, not e-cigarettes, said Rep. Ed Thompson, R-Pearland, who authored the bill.

School districts in his Houston-area state House district raised concerns that juvenile justice programs were filling up with students with marijuana offenses, leaving no room for those who had been expelled for more serious or violent crimes, he said.

“It was really becoming burdensome to the school districts,” Thompson said. “They had kids that needed to get in that couldn’t.”

Thompson said he was also trying to give districts more options to handle these cases.

“I think people need to be held accountable,” Thompson said. “I just hate to see a kid have something on their record.”

Thompson hadn’t intended for the new law to increase penalties for students found with an e-cigarette in school. That provision was added in the Texas Senate after the bill had already passed the House, he said.

“I think a lot of the schools are concerned about the fact it might amplify the numbers,” Thompson said. “We were trying to get the bill pushed through.”

Thompson said he agreed to the vape-related measure because the bill offers districts discretion when considering to refer a student to alternative education.

Local behavior administrators can consider the student’s past disciplinary history, special education needs or intent, among other things, before referring them to an alternative education program, according to the Texas Education Code.

It’s no doubt that use of e-cigarettes or vape pens among students is a problem, Thompson said.

Last year, about 3.3% of middle school students and 14.1 % of high school students reported using an e-cigarette in the last 30 days, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2021, about 16% of Texas middle and high school students reported having used a vaping device, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“From what the school people are telling me, it’s really become an epidemic,” Thompson said. “I’m hoping that this message will get through to these kids that this is not the place.”

The state doesn’t keep data specifically on marijuana-related disciplinary incidences because it only tracks non-felony-level and felony-level drug incidences, according to the TEA.

On Friday, the state will start tracking marijuana-specific and e-cigarette-specific incidents.

In the 2021-22 school year, 1,918 students were expelled from school and placed in a juvenile justice program for mandatory reasons, and 50,885 students were sent to a district’s alternative education program for mandatory reasons, according to TEA data.