The short answer is: sometimes, but far less often than most parents expect. Texas law gives school districts broad protection from lawsuits, and the circumstances where that protection disappears are narrow, procedurally strict, and easy to miss if you wait too long.
If your child was hurt at school, the question is not whether the district acted carelessly. It is whether the law allows you to do anything about it.
Call us at (210) 941-1306 for a free consultation or contact us below. No cost to you unless we win.
Key Takeaways: Rights in Texas if Your Child Was Injured at School
- Texas school districts are governmental entities protected by sovereign immunity, and under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.051, the Texas Tort Claims Act applies to school districts only in limited circumstances, primarily involving motor vehicles.
- The most accessible path to suing a Texas school district for a child's injury is through the motor vehicle exception under Section 101.021, which covers injuries caused by a district employee's negligent operation of a school bus or other district vehicle.
- A second, narrow exception covers excessive physical discipline by a school employee when the district had authorized corporal punishment and the employee violated that policy.
- Effective September 1, 2025, H.B. 4623 created Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 118, waiving school district immunity for gross negligence in hiring or supervising employees who commit sexual abuse against students, with damages up to $500,000 per claimant.
- Parents must provide written notice of a claim to the school district within six months of the injury under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.101. Missing this deadline can permanently bar the claim, regardless of its merits.
Why Texas Schools Are Largely Shielded From Lawsuits
Most parents assume that if a school employee does something negligent and a child gets hurt, the district is responsible. Under Texas law, that assumption is wrong in the vast majority of cases.
What Is Sovereign Immunity and How Does It Protect School Districts?
Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that prevents citizens from suing the government without the government's permission. In Texas, that permission is granted selectively through the Texas Tort Claims Act, codified in Chapter 101 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The Act provides a partial waiver of immunity for certain categories of government conduct, but Section 101.051 carves school districts out of most of those protections entirely.
In practical terms, this means that if a child falls from poorly maintained playground equipment, gets hurt on a defective school staircase, or suffers an injury because of inadequate supervision during a class activity, the district faces no civil liability under Texas state law. The injury may be real, and the negligence may be obvious, but the courthouse doors stay closed.
What Injuries Do Not Give Rise to a Lawsuit Against a Texas School District?
The list is longer than most families realize. Playground falls, lunchroom accidents, sports injuries during practice, injuries from defective school furniture or equipment, and harm caused by inadequate hallway supervision all fall outside the narrow category of claims the Tort Claims Act permits.
A school district in San Antonio whose student breaks an arm on broken gym equipment carries no legal exposure under current Texas law unless one of the specific statutory exceptions applies.
This is not a gap in the law that attorneys have overlooked. It is the deliberate design of Section 101.051, which was written to limit school district liability to a small set of defined situations.
If you are pursuing an injury claim, discover how to maximize your recovery by understanding pain and suffering damages in personal injury claims.
The Three Situations Where a Lawsuit Against a Texas School District Is Actually Possible
Understanding where the exceptions exist is the most useful thing a parent can know after a child's injury at school.
The Motor Vehicle Exception: The Most Common Path to Recovery
Under Section 101.021 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a school district can be held liable for personal injury or death caused by the negligent operation of a motor vehicle by a district employee acting within the scope of their employment. In plain terms, this means school bus accidents are the primary legal avenue for injured students in Texas.
If a bus driver runs a red light, drives distracted, fails to secure a child properly, or causes a collision through careless operation, the district's immunity is waived, and a personal injury claim can proceed. The same applies to other district-owned vehicles driven by employees on school business.
Specifically, the injury must arise from the operation or use of the motor vehicle, not merely from a condition the vehicle creates. A child who trips exiting a parked bus without any negligent vehicle operation involved faces a more difficult argument. A child injured in a moving collision caused by a district driver is squarely within the exception.
The Excessive Discipline Exception: Narrow and Fact-Specific
Texas law permits school districts to adopt policies that allow corporal punishment, and many districts still do. Where a district authorizes corporal punishment, an employee who physically disciplines a student in a manner that exceeds what the district's own policy permits loses the protection of immunity. The school district may also face liability in those circumstances.
This exception is narrow by design. It does not apply where a district has banned corporal punishment outright. It does not cover general physical altercations between students, or even rough physical handling by a teacher in a non-disciplinary context. The claim must connect directly to a disciplinary act that violated the district's own authorized policy.
The Chapter 118 Reform: A Major Change That Took Effect September 1, 2025
For decades, the only way to hold a Texas public school district financially accountable for employee misconduct against students was through the motor vehicle exception or the discipline carve-out. H.B. 4623, passed during the 89th Texas Legislature, changed that in a significant way.
Effective September 1, 2025, Chapter 118 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code waives school district immunity where the district was grossly negligent in hiring, supervising, or retaining a professional school employee who commits sexual abuse against a student, or where the district failed to report known abuse or neglect. This represents the first meaningful expansion of school district immunity waiver since 1969.
Damages under Chapter 118 are capped at $500,000 per Act or omission for each claimant, plus attorney fees and court costs. Gross negligence must be proven, meaning the district had to have been aware of an extreme risk and proceeded with conscious indifference to student safety. This is a high bar, but it is now a viable one in cases involving credible allegations of institutional failure to protect students.
If your child is enrolled in school or daycare in San Antonio, discover the most common causes of child injuries at San Antonio schools and daycares to help identify hazards and protect your family's legal rights.
The Notice Deadline That Ends More Claims Than the Merits Do
Parents who discover the motor vehicle or discipline exception applies to their child's injury often assume the two-year statute of limitations gives them time to organize. It does not control the most critical deadline in these cases.
What Is the Six-Month Notice Requirement Under the Texas Tort Claims Act?
Section 101.101 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires that a claimant provide written notice of a claim to a governmental entity within six months of the incident. For school district claims, this notice must be sent to the district and must reasonably describe the injury, the time and place of the incident, and the circumstances that produced the harm.
Missing this deadline is not a technicality that courts routinely excuse. Courts treat it as a jurisdictional requirement in many circumstances, and failure to comply can permanently eliminate the claim. Bexar County's school districts, including San Antonio ISD, Northside ISD, North East ISD, Judson ISD, and Southwest ISD, are all entitled to this formal notice before any lawsuit can proceed.
The notice should be sent by certified mail to the district superintendent as early as possible. A Texas child injury lawyer reviewing a school injury case will prioritize this step above nearly everything else.
What Are the Damages Caps That Apply to School District Claims?
Even where a claim survives the notice requirement and falls within a recognized exception, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.023 caps recovery from a unit of local government at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence. In contrast, the state government cap is $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence.
This means that in a school bus accident where four children suffer serious injuries in the same crash, the total recovery from the district cannot exceed $300,000 for all claims combined. No single child can recover more than $100,000 regardless of what the actual cost of their injuries reaches. Punitive damages are not available against governmental entities under the Tort Claims Act.
If your child was hurt, discover what to do if your child is injured at a San Antonio daycare or school to protect their rights and secure the compensation they deserve.
Texas School District Injury Questions Answered by Our San Antonio Attorneys
Can the district employee who caused the injury be sued individually?
Yes, in limited circumstances. Texas Education Code Section 22.051 provides immunity to professional school employees acting within the scope of their duties, but that immunity does not cover conduct outside the scope of employment, intentional torts, or violations of a student's constitutional rights.
Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 may also apply where a government employee deprives a student of a constitutional right, and those claims are not subject to the Tort Claims Act's damages caps.
What if a school bus operated by a private contractor, not the district itself, injured our child?
Private transportation contractors operating school buses are not governmental entities. A negligence claim against a private contractor proceeds without the Tort Claims Act's notice requirements or damages caps, which significantly expands the potential recovery. Identifying whether the bus was district-owned or contractor-operated is one of the first factual questions an attorney evaluates in a school bus injury case.
Does the Chapter 118 reform apply to abuse that occurred before September 1, 2025?
No. Chapter 118 applies to causes of action that arise on or after September 1, 2025. Claims based on conduct before that date continue under the prior immunity framework, which provided no meaningful waiver for employee misconduct outside the motor vehicle and discipline exceptions.
What happens if my child's injury was caused partly by another student and partly by inadequate supervision?
A district is generally immune from claims based on inadequate supervision under the current Tort Claims Act framework, even where that supervision failure clearly contributed to the harm. If another student caused the injury, a separate negligence claim against that student's family may be available, but the district itself does not face civil exposure for supervision-based claims in most circumstances.
The school district told us their insurance will cover the claim. Do we still need an attorney?
Yes. The district's insurance carrier represents the district, not your family. Their role is to settle the claim for as little as possible within the district's coverage. An attorney evaluates whether the immunity caps apply, whether third-party claims exist outside those caps, and whether the Chapter 118 framework applies.
Can we sue a private school in Texas for injuring our child?
Private schools are not governmental entities and are not protected by sovereign immunity. A negligence claim against a private school proceeds under standard tort law without the notice requirements, damages caps, or immunity barriers that apply to public school districts.
Our child's injury did not involve a bus. Is it worth calling at all?
Often, yes. Even when the injury falls outside the motor vehicle exception, there may be a path through a private contractor, an individual employee, the new Chapter 118 framework, or a non-district party. We can tell you quickly whether any exception fits your facts before the notice deadline runs.
Before Six Months Passes
Most parents spend the first weeks after a school injury focused on their child's recovery, which is exactly where their attention should be. The problem is that six months moves quickly, and the notice deadline under Section 101.101 does not account for how long it takes a family to realize their claim is even worth pursuing.
The attorneys at Cowen | Rodriguez | Peacock handle catastrophic injury cases across Texas, including claims against governmental entities where the legal framework is stacked against the injured party.
Call (210) 941-1301 for a free consultation, available 24 hours a day. Spanish-language services are available. We take cases on a contingency basis, with no fees unless we recover.
Call us at (210) 941-1306 for a free consultation or contact us below. No cost to you unless we win.