Texas schools referred children 10 to 13 for prosecution more than 47,000 times

What happened

Texas school districts referred children ages 10 to 13 for prosecution more than 47,000 times between 2014 and 2025, according to an analysis by The New York Times and the San Antonio Express-News. About 4,800 of those referrals came in the 2024-25 school year. The outlets reported that Texas Juvenile Justice Department data show referrals for this age group grew by about a third over the decade, faster than student enrollment and faster than referrals of older students. According to the Times, few of the children referred caused serious physical harm.

The Times and Express-News described cases from across the state. In El Paso, a 10-year-old was referred after kicking an assistant principal who had taken his cellphone, and his family ended up with thousands of dollars in legal bills. In Victoria, a 10-year-old admitted he had made up a story about seeing a weapon on campus. Near Austin, an 11-year-old was referred after bumping into a school counselor. In Galveston in August 2024, according to records the outlets reviewed, school police handcuffed a suspended 12-year-old who refused to wait in the lobby and drove her to their headquarters. Body camera footage showed officers twisting her arm behind her back when she would not put her hand on a fingerprint machine. The district’s superintendent wrote that the officers stayed calm and respectful.

The outlets connect the rise to the state’s multibillion-dollar investment in school policing. That investment includes a 2023 law requiring an officer at every public school. The Times reported that state law tells school officers to stay out of routine discipline, but it does not define the term or set any consequence for ignoring it. Officials in some districts pointed to campus safety after the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. A San Antonio juvenile judge told the outlets that many of the pushing and fighting cases in his court could have been handled by a principal.

According to the analysis, Houston and Dallas lowered their referral numbers, and roughly 60 districts drove the statewide increase. The Times reported that State Representative Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat who cosponsored the 2023 law, called the rise in referrals of young children alarming. He said he plans to push for tighter limits on school policing when the Legislature meets in January.

Our reflection

A ten-year-old kicked an adult who took his phone. That was wrong. He needed someone who loves him to make him face it and make it right. Instead, his family got a legal bill in the thousands. A twelve-year-old refused to sit in a lobby, and she got handcuffs and a ride to police headquarters. About 4,800 children that age were referred in a single school year. Every one of those referrals teaches a child what the adults around him do when he is at his smallest.

Let’s be honest about how we got here. After Uvalde, every parent in Texas felt the same cold fear, and that fear was real. But fear nobody examines keeps making decisions long after the danger it answered. Texas put an officer in every school to stand between children and a threat from outside. The numbers say a lot of that power has turned inward, onto the children. And before we point only at Austin, look closer to home. Most of us, when a child embarrasses or defies us, want someone with authority to make it stop. In that moment we want control more than we want the child.

When the disciples tried to keep children away from Jesus, Mark says he was indignant. He took the children in his arms and blessed them. He knew what is in the human heart, children’s hearts included. He still pointed to a child as the picture of who receives the kingdom. Luke tells us Jesus himself “grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52). The Son of God was once ten years old and then twelve, still being formed in the slow years like every child in this story. Childhood is holy ground because God walked it.

Grace and truth belong together here. The boy who kicked owes the person he hurt an apology, and he needs to sit with his principal and his parents until he understands what he did. That is discipline, and Hebrews says real discipline produces “a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews 12:11). A juvenile record at ten produces a file. Children learn repentance face to face with the person they hurt. A court docket rarely teaches it.

This can change, and the reporting shows it. Houston and Dallas work under the same state law and still cut their referrals, while a San Antonio judge says principals could have handled many of these cases. As for the law itself, it already tells school officers to stay out of routine discipline. What it lacks is a definition and a consequence, and lawmakers of any party can write those. Inside the building, it comes down to who gets called first. Through our juvenile intervention and JCVI work, We The Revolt puts trusted adults beside young people at that first contact, before a record exists, and that includes Houston.

Pick one step below this week. If your child in Houston has been referred, reach out to us. If you can give an afternoon, come be the adult a school calls before it calls an officer.

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Mark 10:14

Source: The New York Times, “For Texas Schoolchildren, Minor Misbehavior Can Mean Criminal Charges”