The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has issued correspondence providing an overview of House Bill 8 (89-R). HB 8 repeals and replaces the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) beginning with the 2027–28 school year. HB 8 also makes minor changes to the Texas Assessment Program this school year and revises several accountability requirements impacting the A–F accountability refresh that will occur for ratings issued in fall 2028.
Starting in December 2025, the following four changes from HB 8 go into effect:
- Monday Testing – The policy stated in Texas Education Code (TEC) §39.023(c-3) that prohibits the administration of STAAR on the first Monday of each testing window has been repealed. STAAR assessments may now be administered on Monday of week 1 without the submission of a Monday testing notice. School systems continue to have the flexibility of scheduling assessments during two-week testing windows and may decide not to test on a Monday. TEA has updated the District and Campus Coordinator Resources, the 2025–26 STAAR Test Administrator Manual, the 2025–26 and 2026–27 Student Assessment Testing Calendars, and the online version of the 2025–26 Calendar of Events to reflect this legislative change. These updated resources are available on the Test Administration Resources page of the TEA website.
- Test Anxiety Mitigation – HB 8 amended TEC §39.0301(a-1) to require the commissioner to ensure that test administration procedures include instructions to help mitigate potential student test anxiety. To help put students at ease, starting this school year, TEA has updated the onscreen directions students read on their own and the directions that test administrators must read to students just prior to beginning a STAAR assessment. The new language is included in the updated 2025–26 STAAR Test Administrator Manual. TEA will be exploring additional changes for the new assessment program that goes into effect in the 2027–28 school year.
- Results Notification – HB 8 amended TEC §26.005 to require school systems to provide parents and guardians access to the Texas Assessment Family Portal through a local parent portal and to notify parents and guardians each time state assessment results are available. Resources on connecting local parent portals and setting up automated access emails are available on The Family Portal page of the Coordinator Resources. Communication templates and additional materials to help notify parents about assessment results are available on the Log In & Learn More Tool Kit page of the TEA website.
- Simplified Access to Results – TEC §26.005 was also amended to require TEA to provide parents and guardians with easy access to their child’s state assessment results via the Texas Assessment Family Portal. TEA is in the process of updating the Family Portal login screen to comply with this requirement.
Additionally, changes to the Texas Assessment Program will begin starting with the 2027-28 school year. Starting with the 2027–28 school year, HB 8 will overhaul the Texas Assessment Program by replacing STAAR with a new instructionally supportive assessment program for Texas schools, referred to as the Student Success Tool (SST) in statute. The new program will include beginning-of-year (BOY), middle-of-year (MOY), and end-of-year (EOY) assessments for grades 3–8 and for Spanish grades 3–5. BOY and MOY assessments will be optional for end-of-course (EOC) assessments: Algebra I, Biology, English I, and U.S. History.
The new assessment program will include the following requirements:
- Assessments must be shorter than STAAR assessments and must be designed to support accommodations for students who need them.
- The BOY and MOY assessments will be adaptive to allow for shorter assessments that provide the most useful student-level information. The EOY assessment will be static to ensure parents and teachers have full access to all released test questions each school year.
- Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities are required to be assessed with EOY assessments in the same grades/subjects and courses listed above but will not participate in BOY or MOY assessments.
- In general, BOY assessments must be administered in September, MOY assessments in January and February, and EOY assessments in May. The writing section of the reading language arts (RLA) assessments, which includes open-ended questions, will be administered separately in April.
- Assessment results must be provided to school systems within two business days after the testing window closes.
TEA has produced an frequently asked questions (FAQ) document related to HB 8 implementation, which is available at 89th Legislature Updates | Texas Education Agency. The full overview of HB 8 released by TEA can be found here.
