Texas school district police departments can no longer take the lead on child abuse investigations involving their own students, according to a formal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton that is already reshaping how districts across the Houston area handle misconduct cases. The ruling, Opinion KP-0528, found that campus police forces don't qualify as a proper law enforcement agency under Texas Family Code Chapter 261, cutting them out of primary investigative authority even on their own campuses.
Paxton's opinion, issued September 16, determined that Senate Bill 571's definition of a law enforcement agency applies across the entire chapter, according to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas. As reported by ABC13 Houston, the law defines a law enforcement agency as the Department of Public Safety, municipal police departments, county sheriff's offices, and county constable's offices. Reports may also be made to DFPS or, in specified circumstances, the state agency operating, licensing, certifying, or registering the facility. School district police, no matter how well staffed, are not included in that definition.
The opinion does leave campus officers with some role to play. The attorney general's office clarified that while school district police cannot take primary reports or lead Chapter 261 investigations, officers still carry a mandatory legal duty to report suspected abuse to outside authorities and to assist external law enforcement once a case is underway, the office noted.
A Montgomery County Case Gets a Second Look
The real-world consequences of the opinion are already playing out in Montgomery County. Conroe ISD transferred its complete investigative file on former Woodlands High School wrestling coach William Durning to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office on September 23, after district police began their investigation on April 27, according to Woodlands Online. The Houston Chronicle reported that district police later found no chargeable offense.
Texas State Representative Steve Toth joined Conroe ISD board members and families on October 6 to endorse the sheriff's office taking over oversight of the case, arguing that county agencies have the independence and resources needed for unbiased investigations, per the Houston Chronicle. The episode has become something of a test case for how AG Paxton's interpretation plays out once a file actually changes hands between agencies.
Spring Branch ISD's Police Chief Pushes Back
Not everyone welcomes the shift. Spring Branch ISD Police Chief Larry Baimbridge asked Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare to seek clarity from the attorney general in the first place, but he's come away frustrated with the result, according to ABC13 Houston. Baimbridge said his department has the capacity, investigators, and training to conduct child abuse investigations quickly, and he believes his agency is capable of handling them fairly and on time.
Trustee Chris Earnest said most Spring Branch ISD campuses fall under Houston Police Department jurisdiction and that municipal officers face delayed response times, according to Texas Scorecard. Baimbridge said school district police cannot conduct these investigations under the new law, and that outside agencies handling the caseload are already stretched thin. Baimbridge wants school district departments to regain the authority to investigate suspected child abuse or neglect, and he would like to see the law repealed outright.
Spring Branch ISD trustees raised similar concerns during a September board workshop, according to Texas Scorecard, pointing to the same jurisdictional gap that leaves campus officers sidelined while municipal police catch up. Still, Baimbridge agrees that agencies should acknowledge possible conflicts of interest, and he says the solution isn't to remove investigative power from every school district department, but to let departments do their jobs while officials are held accountable. School district police can still assist outside agencies with abuse investigations, and Spring Branch ISD's police department says it will keep doing what it legally can to help, per ABC13 Houston.
Why Lawmakers Drew the Line
Senate Bill 571, authored by state Senator Paul Bettencourt and passed during the 89th Texas Legislative Session, took effect in 2025. Bettencourt has said investigations could take longer under the new law, but that the goal is to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure cases are handled fairly and impartially, according to ABC13 Houston. Legislative committee analyses show lawmakers deliberately restricted the definition of a law enforcement agency to outside entities in order to eliminate the appearance of school districts investigating their own personnel, the Houston Chronicle reported.
David Kwok, affiliated with the University of Houston Law Center, said objectivity was central to the attorney general's reasoning, and that third-party accountability and transparency can suffer when investigations stay within the same school system, per ABC13 Houston. The new law could also mean longer investigations overall, and it could leave educators unable to return to classrooms while cases remain pending, the station reported.
A Statewide Surge in Misconduct Reports
The policy shift arrives alongside a broader wave of educator misconduct reporting across Texas. Texas Scorecard reported 19,766 educator misconduct reports for fiscal year 2026, triple fiscal year 2025. The Texas Education Agency's Texas Education Agency page provides guidance on educator reporting requirements.
The same legislation shortened the mandatory reporting deadline for licensed professionals, including teachers and healthcare workers, from 48 hours down to 24 hours, per the agency. It also created Chapter 22A of the Texas Education Code, requiring campus principals to report evidence of educator misconduct to their superintendent within 48 hours, with state jail felony penalties for administrators who fail to report with intent to conceal, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. Separately, the Texas Commissioner of Education now has expanded authority to place school employees on the state's Do Not Hire Registry immediately upon a qualifying arrest, blocking them from public school employment while charges remain pending, per the Texas Education Agency.
Together, the changes mark one of the most significant overhauls of how Texas schools handle abuse allegations in years, trading the speed of in-house campus police for the independence of outside law enforcement. Whether that trade-off produces faster justice or slower caseloads, as Chief Baimbridge fears, is likely to keep playing out case by case in districts like Conroe ISD and Spring Branch ISD in the months ahead.
