Texas · House Bill · 89th Regular Session
HB4390
Texas HB 4390 — Relating to parental rights regarding the use of machine grading to score certain portions of assessment instruments administered to public school students in this state

Status ● Introduced Effective Sep 1, 2025 Passage Likelihood L

WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 2 REQUIREMENT TYPES

How Is This Bill Enforced

Enforcement Authority
No enforcement mechanism specified in the bill. The Texas Education Agency is the agency responsible for administering public school assessment instruments under Tex. Educ. Code § 39.023, but the bill does not create any penalties or private right of action.
Private Right of Action
No private right of action. Enforcement is exclusive to the designated authority.
Penalties
The bill specifies no penalties, damages, or remedies.

What This Bill Requires

Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.

Statutory Text
Analysis & Obligations
Tex. Educ. Code § 39.023(q)
Parental notice of machine grading
Government

(q) 1 The agency shall provide written notice to a student's parent if machine grading, including artificial intelligence or computer software, is used to score a constructed response provided by a student as part of an assessment instrument administered under this section. The notice must include information regarding the parent's right to request rescoring of the constructed response as provided by Subsection (r).

New subsection (q) imposes a written-notice obligation on the Texas Education Agency whenever machine grading — defined to include artificial intelligence or computer software — is used to score a student's constructed response on a state assessment instrument. The notice must inform the parent that machine grading was used and advise them of their right to request human rescoring under subsection (r). This is a transparency obligation directed at a government agency rather than a private-sector developer or deployer.

Compliance actions 1 item
1
The Texas Education Agency must provide written notice to a student's parent whenever machine grading (including AI or computer software) is used to score the student's constructed response on a state assessment instrument, including information about the parent's right to request human rescoring.
T-01.1
Tex. Educ. Code § 39.023(r)
Parental right to request human rescoring
Government

(r) 2 On written request by a parent of a student who failed to perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument in which machine grading was used to score the constructed response as described by Subsection (q), that portion of the student's assessment instrument must be rescored using a traditional scoring method that does not include machine grading, at no cost to the parent.

New subsection (r) creates a right for parents to request that a machine-graded constructed response be rescored by a human using a traditional scoring method when the student failed to perform satisfactorily. The rescoring must be provided at no cost to the parent. This operates as a human-review override right triggered by an adverse automated outcome — the student's unsatisfactory performance — and is structurally similar to the right to human review of automated decisions found in broader AI accountability frameworks, although it is narrowly scoped to standardized test scoring.

Compliance actions 1 item
2
When a student fails to perform satisfactorily on an assessment scored by machine grading, the agency must, upon written parental request, rescore the constructed-response portion using a traditional human scoring method at no cost to the parent.
H-01.4
Tex. HB 4390, Section 2
Applicability date

This Act applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.

Section 2 establishes that the bill's requirements apply beginning with the 2025–2026 school year. This sets the operative scope without creating an independent compliance obligation.

Tex. HB 4390, Section 3
Effective date

This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2025.

Section 3 provides a two-tier effective date: the bill takes effect immediately if it receives a two-thirds vote in both chambers, or on September 1, 2025, if it does not. This is a standard Texas immediate-effect clause and creates no independent compliance obligation.

Passage Likelihood

Low
Status Introduced
Chamber No passage
Committee No action
Majority party No
Bipartisan No
Prior session None

Legislative History

2025-03-11 Filed
2025-04-01 Read first time
2025-04-01 Referred to Public Education

Entry Last Reviewed

2026-05-20
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