1,200 Bills on Day One Included a Disability Slate: Officer Alerts at Traffic Stops, Deaf-Blind Navigators, and an Eloping Policy for Texas Schools
Texas lawmakers filed over 1,200 bills on prefiling's first day, November 9. Inside the flood, the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities flags a disability slate for the 90th Legislature: HB 170 would flag a communication-affecting disability to officers from registration data, HB 209 would build a deaf-blind co-navigation program, HB 603 takes on eloping by students with autism — and the session does not even gavel in until January 12.
AUSTIN — The headline number from prefiling's first day is the flood itself: Texas lawmakers filed over 1,200 bills on Monday, November 9, for the 90th Legislature — against roughly 9,000 filed across the entire 2025 regular session, according to the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities' first legislative news edition of the cycle. Inside that flood is a disability slate that will matter in Metroplex classrooms, traffic stops and transit systems.
The most concrete of the set is HB 170, by Rep. Armando 'Mando' Martinez, which relates to using vehicle registration information to notify peace officers that a person has a health condition or disability that may affect communication — the kind of flag that can change the first thirty seconds of a traffic stop. HB 209, by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, would have the Health and Human Services Commission create a co-navigation service program for people who are deaf-blind.
The school bills run from discipline to safety. HB 541, by Rep. John Bucy III, sets behavior management requirements for students in special education programs. HB 603, by Rep. Suleman Lalani, addresses public school policy on eloping behavior by students with autism or other intellectual and developmental disabilities — the walk-away incidents every Texas district dreads. HB 545, by Rep. Joe Moody, concerns the use of the death penalty for a capital offense committed by a person with an intellectual disability.
On the Senate side, SB 90, by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, covers regulation of childcare facilities and registered family homes, including services to children with disabilities, and SB 142, by Sen. Jose Menendez, would create an education and training program for public transportation vehicle operators on interacting with and supporting people with IDD. None of it is law, or close: when the Legislature convenes on January 12, 2027, it will seat dozens of new lawmakers, and TCDD notes a potential divide in priorities between the House and Senate. The disability slate's first test is simply surviving that building.
