Texas Says School Police Cannot Be Sole Agency for Child-Abuse Reports

HOUSTON — Texas school employees and other mandated reporters cannot satisfy their legal duty to report suspected child abuse or neglect by notifying only a school-district police department, according to a formal state legal opinion now reshaping how districts handle sensitive allegations.

The clarification has immediate relevance in the Houston region. Conroe ISD has transferred files involving allegations of inappropriate behavior by a former Woodlands High School coach to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office for outside review, the Houston Chronicle reported. The district said its police department previously investigated and found no chargeable offense. The former coach has denied wrongdoing through his attorney, and the renewed review does not establish guilt.

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Opinion KP-0528 interprets a definition added to the Texas Family Code by Senate Bill 571 in 2025. Under that definition, the “law enforcement agency” authorized to receive and investigate certain child-abuse or neglect reports means the Texas Department of Public Safety, a municipal police department, a county sheriff’s office or a county constable’s office. School-district police departments are not included.

“Accordingly, a school district police department does not qualify as an ‘appropriate law enforcement agency’ for reports to be made to,” the attorney general’s office said in its Sept. 17 announcement.

The opinion does not remove school police from child-safety work. District officers still must report suspected abuse or neglect, cooperate with outside investigators and provide assistance. Attorney general opinions are official interpretations of existing law, but they are not court judgments.

The Texas Education Agency’s current guidance tells school professionals to report suspected abuse or neglect directly to the Department of Family and Protective Services or an eligible law-enforcement agency. Telling a supervisor, making an internal report or seeking internal approval does not satisfy the legal requirement. For reporting purposes, TEA says school-district and charter-school police departments do not count as the required outside law-enforcement agency.

The change is intended to reduce conflicts of interest when allegations involve a district employee and to ensure that reports reach authorities outside the school system. It also gives parents, educators and community members a clearer path: call 911 when a child is in immediate danger; otherwise, contact the Texas Abuse Hotline online or at 1-800-252-5400. People may also report to a municipal police department, sheriff, constable or DPS as applicable.

For families across Houston and Texas, the central message is straightforward: a report made inside a school system should not be the final stop. Independent authorities must be brought in when state child-abuse reporting law applies.

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