Texas Educators’ Code of Ethics: Standards, Reporting, and SBEC Sanctions

The Texas Educators’ Code of Ethics, codified at 19 TAC §247.2, is a binding set of conduct rules that every holder of a State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) credential must follow.¹ It covers three areas: professional practices and financial integrity, treatment of students, and treatment of colleagues. Breaking a rule can cost you a reprimand, a suspension, or your certificate itself, and some related failures (like not reporting suspected child abuse) carry criminal penalties on top of certificate sanctions.

Who Has to Follow It

The code reaches anyone required to hold a certificate under Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code. That means classroom teachers, administrators, counselors, librarians, and other credentialed support staff, plus candidates working toward certification.¹ If you hold or are pursuing an SBEC credential, these standards apply to you, on campus and off.

Standard 1: Professional and Financial Conduct

Standard 1 is about honesty on the job. You cannot use your position or district property for personal financial gain, and you cannot deceive the district, TEA, or SBEC about anything connected to your work or your credential.² Falsifying records, or pressuring anyone else to do so, is a standalone violation. That includes test data, attendance, and any official district documentation.

The code also requires compliance with state, federal, and local law. A conviction is not required for SBEC to act. The board can sanction an educator based on evidence of an offense involving moral turpitude, drug distribution, misuse of school funds, fraudulent certification, a felony DWI, or any crime committed on school property or at a school event.³

Providing alcohol or unauthorized drugs to anyone under 21 violates the code unless the recipient is your own child. Knowingly letting a minor consume alcohol or drugs in your presence counts too, and illegal use or distribution of controlled substances and prescription drugs is prohibited.⁴

Standard 3: Conduct Toward Students

Standard 3 produces most of the serious enforcement cases. It requires you to maintain professional boundaries with students under what the rule calls a “reasonably prudent educator” standard, and it applies in the classroom, in extracurriculars, and in every form of electronic contact.²

Physical and Sexual Boundaries

You may not treat a student in any way that harms or endangers physical health, mental health, or safety. Physical mistreatment, neglect, and abuse are specifically prohibited. Soliciting or engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with any student or minor is among the gravest violations in the code and can result in permanent revocation of your certificate.⁵

Electronic Communication

Inappropriate communication with students through any electronic channel is barred, including cell phones, text messages, social media, blogs, and private messaging apps.² “Inappropriate” is broader than overtly sexual content. Educators have been sanctioned for using fake accounts to reach students, sending personal Snapchat messages, and commenting on students’ personal posts in ways that crossed professional lines. Keeping student communication on district-approved, monitored platforms is the defensible practice.

Fair Treatment

You cannot exclude a student from a program, deny benefits, or grant advantages based on race, color, gender, disability, national origin, religion, family status, or sexual orientation. You also cannot misrepresent facts about a student or use language or actions that damage a student’s well-being.²

Student Records and FERPA

Personally identifiable information from a student’s education records cannot be disclosed without signed, dated written consent from the parent or eligible student, except under narrow federal exceptions such as disclosures to school officials with a legitimate educational interest or certain emergencies.⁶ Casual conversation about a student’s grades, discipline history, or special education status with colleagues who have no need to know creates liability.

Standard 2: Conduct Toward Colleagues

Standard 2 covers staff relationships. You cannot disclose confidential information about a colleague that you learned through your professional role, and you cannot make false statements about a colleague’s competence or character.² Workplace discrimination against colleagues is prohibited on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, family status, or sexual orientation. Age is listed here, though not in the student-facing list.

Mandatory Reporting of Suspected Child Abuse

Every school employee in Texas is a mandatory reporter. If you suspect a child has been abused or neglected, you have to make the report yourself, to the Department of Family and Protective Services or law enforcement. You cannot pass the task to a supervisor or wait to see what someone else does. TEA directs educators to report within 24 hours of first learning of the concern.⁷

Failing to report is a Class A misdemeanor under the Texas Family Code. If you intentionally withhold a report to conceal the misconduct, it becomes a state jail felony.⁸ TEA can also pursue certificate sanctions up to revocation on top of any criminal charge.⁷

Contract Abandonment

Walking away from a teaching position at the wrong time can cost you your certificate. Under a continuing contract, you can resign without penalty by filing written notice no later than the 45th day before the first day of instruction for the next school year.⁹ After that, you need the school board’s consent to leave cleanly.

SBEC’s penalty guidelines set tiered minimums:¹⁰

Resigning without consent between 44 and 30 days before instruction begins carries a mandatory minimum inscribed reprimand on your certificate.
Resigning less than 30 days before instruction, or during the school year, carries a minimum one-year suspension. If you worked as an educator after abandoning the contract, the suspension runs from the date of the final order rather than the date you left.

Good cause can reduce or eliminate the sanction. SBEC recognizes serious illness, a spouse’s job relocation, significant changes in family needs, and a reasonable belief that you had written permission to resign. Filing between the 45th and 30th day shields you from suspension or revocation, though a reprimand may still apply.⁹

Sanctions SBEC Can Impose

When the board finds a violation, it can impose one or more of the following:³

Restrictions on what you can do with your certificate, indefinitely or for a set period.
A reprimand, either inscribed (visible on your certification record) or non-inscribed.
Suspension, which can be probated so it takes effect only on breach of conditions.
Revocation, which can be for a term (after which you may reapply) or permanent.
Required classes, counseling, or treatment as a condition of keeping your certificate.

Severity tracks the conduct. An inscribed reprimand is the floor for minor contract abandonment; permanent revocation sits at the ceiling for sexual misconduct with a student. In between, the board weighs factors like prior discipline, intent, and whether students were harmed.

How a Case Starts, and the 30-Day Trap

Investigations can begin from a written complaint by any person, from TEA’s own staff work, or from a required report by a superintendent or charter school director after an educator is terminated or resigns under a cloud of certain misconduct.¹¹ Resigning does not end the process. A superintendent is required to tell you in writing before accepting your resignation that a report will be filed and that sanctions may follow.

Once SBEC files a petition against your certificate, you have 30 calendar days to file a written answer that specifically admits or denies each allegation. If you miss the deadline, every factual allegation in the petition is treated as admitted.¹² Contested cases are heard at the State Office of Administrative Hearings under the Texas Administrative Procedure Act, and you can represent yourself or hire a licensed Texas attorney.⁵ If you get a petition, calendar the answer deadline before you do anything else.

A Texas Sanction Follows You

Certificate action in Texas is reported to the NASDTEC Educator Identification Clearinghouse, which shares disciplinary data among member states for use when reviewing certification applications.¹³ The database covers denials, revocations, suspensions, public reprimands, and voluntary surrenders. A record does not automatically bar you from licensure elsewhere, but any state you apply to will see it, and local districts and preparation programs can access it as well. Crossing a state line will not erase a Texas sanction.

1
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 247-1 – Purpose and Scope; Definitions
2
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 247-2 – Code of Ethics and Standard Practices for Texas Educators
3
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 249-15 – Disciplinary Action by State Board for Educator Certification
4
Texas Education Agency. Chapter 247 Educators Code of Ethics
5
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 249-5 – Purpose; Policy Governing Disciplinary Proceedings
6
Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO). Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
7
Texas Education Agency. Educators Duty to Protect Students
8
State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 261-109
9
State of Texas. Texas Education Code 21-160 – Resignation Under Continuing Contract
10
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 249-17 – Decision-Making Guidelines
11
Legal Information Institute. 19 Texas Admin Code 249-14 – Complaint, Required Reporting, and Investigation; Investigative Notice; Filing of Petition
12
Texas Education Agency. 19 TAC Chapter 249 Subchapter C
13
NASDTEC. NASDTEC Clearinghouse FAQ