House Bill 6 is a response to reports of more violent classroom disruptions after the pandemic. It lowers the bar for when schools can discipline for the state’s homeless and youngest students.

The 89-43 vote comes less than two months after an Austin federal judge declared extreme heat in Texas prisons “plainly unconstitutional."

The Texas House originally passed House Bill 2, a multibillion-dollar school funding package, in April. But the version of the legislation heard Thursday by a panel of Texas senators includes several significant changes from what the House approved.