restrictions<\/a> that the district put in place earlier this year, which distinguished between passive and productive use of technology and established age-appropriate rules.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s how we make sure that we\u2019re using technology in a way that\u2019s benefitting students rather than potentially causing harm,\u201d Stockton said.<\/p>\n
Stockton said another legislative priority will likely be establishing guidelines around artificial intelligence use in the classroom, balancing a need to prepare students for the workforce with responsible restrictions on use.<\/p>\n
Per the draft legislative priorities, RISD will advocate to ensure schools have the necessary resources, guidance and flexibility under any new regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know [AI] is going to be a consideration, and what we don\u2019t want is legislation that is equally applied unilaterally, that gives no districts the ability to craft policy that works for their local community,\u201d Branum said. \u201cThere needs to be some flexibility in allowing a local board to make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
A closer look<\/p>\n
The Legislature passed the school funding bill HB 2 in 2025, which provided a \u201cslight increase\u201d of $55 in the basic allotment per student, Heller said, as well as increases in the school safety allotment, ADA funding, teacher pay and other areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did receive substantial additional funding last session, but it was very targeted and there are some specific needs that are still going unmet,\u201d Stockton said.<\/p>\n
Heller said RISD identified almost $40 million in state-mandated costs that are not covered by state allotments. Particularly large funding gaps include:<\/p>\n
$6.4 million in safety and security<\/p>\n
$10.5 million in transportation<\/p>\n
$12.2 million in special education<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we could get fully funded or even more closely fully funded to address these gaps, we would have a more balanced budget,\u201d Heller said.<\/p>\n
While state allotments are not designed to cover all expenses in these categories, Stockton said the legislature can still reduce cost burdens on the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt costs more every year to educate kids. It costs more every year to run a school district,\u201d school board President Chris Poteet said. \u201cWe appreciate the [Allotment for Basic Costs], we appreciate them taking a look at some of those things, but the increase is outpacing anything that they\u2019ve given.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stockton said specific funding priorities for the legislative session include providing additional funding for armed security officers and for students receiving special education services, increasing the Allotment for Basic Costs and providing funding to account for unanticipated enrollment declines that the district can\u2019t budget for.<\/p>\n
Also of note<\/p>\n
In addition to identifying areas for revenue increases, Stockton said the district will also look to decrease expenditures in the budget by reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens passed down by lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of expenditures are dictated by regulatory compliance pieces,\u201d Stockton said. \u201cWhere there\u2019s opportunity to reduce those pieces, we have the potential opportunity to save some expenditures.\u201d<\/p>\n
These priorities are primarily focused on clarifying legislation from last session that had \u201cunintended consequences\u201d and expenditures, Stockton said. This includes clarifying a requirement for school districts to receive affidavits from service providers, simplifying reporting requirements, clarifying parental consent requirements for basic health services and allowing school district staff to participate in activities where they receive financial benefit.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/p>\n
The school board is set to officially adopt the legislative priorities on Oct. 15, which Heller said will kick off a community engagement plan to involve local legislators, district members and community partners in advocacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really are hopeful that our community will show up, be present and be a big part of this advocacy work,\u201d Branum said. \u201cMy voice right now does not mean nearly as much as the weight of our community, our business and industry partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branum highlighted plans for RISD\u2019s Rally Day<\/a> at the Texas Capitol, which is organized by the Richardson ISD Council of PTAs and will take place Feb. 22.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is the time that we really, really need your support as a community,\u201d trustee Regina Harris said. \u201cEvery day on TV, we are seeing public education just get pummeled. We\u2019ve got to step up and do something. We\u2019ve got to have our voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richardson ISD officials reviewed the district\u2019s proposed priorities for the 90th Texas Legislative session, which will include advocating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[152433,152434,160,162,161,5810,3603,91,139573,3621,47394],"class_list":["post-440392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-danny-stockton","tag-melissa-heller","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-richardson-isd","tag-school-funding","tag-special-education","tag-tabitha-branum","tag-technology","tag-texas-legislative-session"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}