The big picture
House Bill 114, which took effect Sept. 1, 2023, mandates that students found in possession of electronic cigarettes be sent to disciplinary alternative education program, or DAEP, facilities unless the district presents an alternative plan approved by the Legislature through a district of innovation designation.
Since then, San Marcos CISD has reported a 21.6% increase in mandatory DAEP placements, with vaping-related referrals making up more than 22.31% of those placements, according to data from the Texas Education Agency and a public information request, or PIR, filed by Community Impact.
Andrew Fernandez, chief of communications for SMCISD, said the district has been proactively educating students starting at the elementary level about HB 114 and the dangers of vaping.
Fernandez said SMCISD is also working to support students who may be struggling with substance use by offering mental health resources and early intervention through social-emotional counselors and telemedicine resources, such as Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine, or TCHATT.
“We're dealing with teenagers, and we're expecting teenagers to make adult decisions and face adult consequences,” Fernandez said. “You don't want to ruin a young adult's life, so we're doing our best to educate them at a very early age and educate parents as well.”
In Hays CISD, the overall number of DAEP placements slightly declined this school year, largely due to a drop in mandatory referrals despite HB 114 and an increase in discretionary referrals, according to data from the TEA.
However, vaping still remains a leading cause of placements, according to data from the PIR. During the 2023-24 school year, Hays CISD logged 133 vaping-related DAEP referrals—34.9% of all DAEP placements.
Since the start of the 2024-25 school year, Hays CISD has already reported 180 vaping-related DAEP referrals, as of Feb. 21, which is an increase from the previous year.
While HB 114 has intensified the impact of vaping-related discipline, Hays CISD had already seen a 102% rise in mandatory DAEP referrals between 2019 and 2023, data from the TEA shows.
What they’re saying
Fernandez said SMCISD faculty and staff have mixed feelings about HB 114, especially as students and educators continue to recover from the pandemic’s long-term effects.
“The pandemic caused a lot of damage, not only on our students, but our community, our staff members,” Fernandez said. “[We] had students and families who didn't have the resources necessary to get through a pandemic ... and we understand that it's going to take years and a lot of resources for our students and our families and our staff members to get back to normal. It’s something that the nation is facing, and we’re no different in San Marcos.”
Brian Dawson, director of student success at Hays CISD, said many students are still struggling with academic and social gaps caused by pandemic-era school closures.
“We have a large gap across our students’ education,” Dawson said. “We’re having to catch up on that ... especially when you’re looking at a student who is in a setting that might not be as safe or as stimulating as what a school setting might be for a student, they’re missing out on those skills, so even if they gained those skills, they went for two and a half years without using them.”
Dawson said that many students turn to vaping as a form of self-medication and that the district is focused on education and reintegration rather than punishment.
“We’re not about trying to criminalize children,” Dawson said. “We’re trying to help them learn because to me, behaviors are always a response to something ... so we have to really unpack it and find a root cause for each one of our students.”
The other side
Some advocates and education experts, such as the Intercultural Development Research Association, or IDRA, and the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, have voiced concerns that HB 114 reinforces zero-tolerance policies and may contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Brenda Scheuermann, Center on PBIS partner and Texas State University education professor, said zero-tolerance policies have historically harmed students, particularly if they are marginalized or low-income, and that the organization would like to see more resources diverted to prevention and support instead.
“The idea of cracking down on vaping, that’s an old idea. That concept of harsh punishments for unacceptable behaviors, that’s [as] old as time,” Scheuermann said. “Our systems are not well equipped to help parents who have children that have significant behavioral needs.”
Paige Duggins-Clay, chief legal analyst at IDRA, said HB 114 was meant to address the problem of youth substance abuse, but rather than addressing how students are acquiring vaping products, the Legislature instead punished children, similar to the implementation of mandatory minimums in the 1980s.
“[These devices] are marketed to young people with [vape] flavors like birthday cake and strawberry and raspberry, [and] they are being made somehow accessible to young people,” Duggins-Clay said. “And that should really be the focus of, I think, policy and practice around addressing this real challenge and real issue of substance abuse in these cases.”
What it means
Duggins-Clay said with additional legislation, such as House Bill 3, which required one police officer on all public school campuses, the combined effects of these policies may increase the chances of students being justice-involved later on.
“There's no evidence to support the notion that that sort of like carceral response will help,” Duggins-Clay said. “Now we just have kids sort of warehoused in these facilities that are not meant for supporting young people in a holistic way. ... If you talk to anyone who’s had a kid in a DAEP, they’ll tell you that it’s, on balance, just a really harmful, traumatic experience.”
Duggins-Clay noted that while African American students made up nearly 13% of Texas public school enrollment in 2023–24, they accounted for almost 21% of statewide DAEP placements.
“That disproportionality should be really concerning,” Duggins-Clay said. “We have so many new teachers, so many senior teachers who have left, so many nontraditionally or alternative certified, [and] these are professionals who want to work with kids, but maybe don't have the same level of tolerance or ability to sort of navigate and assess what is age-appropriate youth behavior and what is not.”
In Hays CISD, Hispanic and Black students are overrepresented in alternative disciplinary placements compared to their share of the student population.
DAEP data from the TEA shows that Hispanic students make up 66% of the district’s enrollment but account for more than 80% of disciplinary placements.
Black students, who represent just 3% of the student population, make up roughly double their share. In contrast, white students are underrepresented, according to the data.
What’s being done
At Hays CISD, Dawson said the district has worked to reduce repeat placements by focusing on support services and structured reintegration with a team made up of a parent, teacher, social-emotional counselor, home campus staff and DAEP facility staff.
“We’re about rehabilitating or providing a restorative opportunity for them,” Dawson said. “Our ultimate focus is how do we educate and prevent it from happening again.”
Fernandez said SMCISD implements similar reintegration strategies, and after HB 114 was implemented, student reintegration meetings have benefited from having a mandatory policy to reference, which lays out clear district and legal guidelines for students.
“We want to make sure that [our students] are receiving the best high-quality education possible, and the only way they’re going to do that is through staying at their home campus and making sure they stay away from any drugs and alcohol,” Fernandez said.
Looking ahead
State lawmakers are now weighing whether to expand or restrict zero-tolerance policies like HB 114.
Some Texas Senate bills passed this session, such as Senate Bill 27, seek to strengthen school discipline policies, making it easier for teachers to remove disruptive students from classrooms.
Regardless of legislative changes, Dawson and Fernandez said HCISD and SMCISD will continue focusing on a rehabilitative approach to HB 114.
“I believe personally that our district has prevented a lot of students from engaging in the behaviors, and that's going to continue to be our approach,” Dawson said. “We'll always try to find a way to strengthen our approach for that, ... [and] I personally feel like that's exactly what we'll continue doing.”
