Texas requires schools to excuse ABA therapy absences: what §25.087(b-3) covers, who owns each part, and the credit rule it does not change

Texas attendance law contains a subsection that names applied behavior analysis. It sits inside a general rule about health care appointments, it was added to resolve a conflict with older state guidance, and it is administered day to day by campus attendance staff who are usually working from the general rule. Excusing the absence is not discretionary, it is not a favor, and it is not something to renegotiate every semester.

There is no single page that assembles this. The statute, the agency guidance interpreting it, and the separate credit rule that limits it are three different documents held by two different offices, and neither office is responsible for handing a family all three. The fear of truancy letters is one of the most common reasons parents cut therapy hours they did not need to cut, and that happens because the citation is hard to find, not because anyone asked the wrong question.

What follows is each requirement, when it applies, and the provision it comes from.

The five requirements

Three of the five take effect without anyone asking. The other two are conditions, one on how the appointment day is scheduled and one on total attendance in a single class, and those are the rows worth checking in August.

ARD stands for admission, review, and dismissal. In Texas, the ARD committee is the team responsible for decisions about a child's special education program, and it is what most other states call the IEP team (TEA, ARD Supports). You are a required member of that committee, alongside at least one of your child's regular education teachers, a special education teacher or provider, a representative of the school, and someone who can interpret the evaluation results. The fourth row above is owned by that committee rather than by campus attendance staff, which is why it is the one row in the table with a different name in the "who owns it" column.

Requirement 1: a partial-day appointment absence must be excused

Texas requires school districts to excuse a student for "a temporary absence resulting from an appointment with health care professionals for the student or the student's child if the student commences classes or returns to school on the same day of the appointment" (Texas Education Code §25.087(b)(2)).

The condition sits inside the quoted text, and it is the one that trips families up. The absence has to be a partial day. Your child either starts the day at school and leaves for the appointment, or attends the appointment and comes back the same day. A full day out for therapy does not fall under this provision.

Where this goes wrong: the appointment is scheduled so that returning the same day is impractical, and the absence stops meeting the condition the statute sets.

Requirement 2: an autism services appointment is a temporary absence under (b)(2)

Texas Education Code §25.087(b-3) provides that a temporary absence under (b)(2) includes the temporary absence of a student diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder on the day of an appointment with a health care practitioner to receive a generally recognized service for autism spectrum disorder, including applied behavior analysis, speech therapy, and occupational therapy.

The statute names ABA therapy explicitly. Not "medical appointments" generally, not "therapy" as a category. Applied behavior analysis, by name. Most families have never heard of the subsection, and a general search will rarely surface it.

The Texas Education Agency's own guidance is equally direct. TEA states that this provision was added to clarify that these absences must be excused as temporary absences under §25.087(b)(2), and concludes: "a school must excuse any absences that fall within TEC §25.087(b-3)" (TEA, Guidance Regarding Temporary Absences of Students with Disabilities).

The subsection exists because of an older conflict, and that conflict is why parents get contradictory answers. TEA advised districts in 2001 that regularly scheduled daily or weekly absences to get ongoing treatment for a chronic condition related to a student's disability could not be treated as "temporary" absences, and TEA confirms that guidance still applies generally. ABA therapy is often recurring and weekly, so under the general rule alone, a standing Tuesday appointment is arguably not a "temporary" absence at all. Subsection (b-3) resolves that specifically for autism services.

Where this goes wrong: the 2001 guidance is applied on its own. An answer that recurring therapy absences are not temporary describes the general rule accurately and leaves out the provision that carves out autism services. That is a citation problem rather than a conflict, and naming the subsection usually solves it.

Requirement 3: what an excused absence obligates the district to do

Being excused is not just a label. Three consequences follow (§25.087(d)).

1. Your child may not be penalized for the absence.
2. Your child is counted as if they attended, for purposes of calculating the district's average daily attendance. This matters more than it looks, because average daily attendance drives school funding. An excused absence under this provision does not cost the district money, which removes the incentive that sometimes sits behind attendance pushback.
3. Your child must be allowed a reasonable time to make up missed schoolwork. If the work is satisfactorily completed, the day of absence is counted as a day of compulsory attendance.

Where this goes wrong: the absence is coded correctly and the makeup time in the third consequence is never requested.

Requirement 4: the makeup-work plan belongs on the ARD agenda

TEA's guidance adds a practical point aimed at schools: the ARD committee "should consider the expected length of the student's recurring absences and determine how the student will make up missed work." The makeup plan is meant to be handled deliberately by the committee, not improvised by whoever is at the front desk.

That makes it a legitimate ARD agenda item. If your child misses the same period every week, how that instruction gets made up belongs in the plan.

Where this goes wrong: the plan is settled informally at the campus rather than determined by the committee, and nothing about it enters the ARD record.

Requirement 5: 90 percent attendance for class credit

Even when every absence is excused, your child is still subject to Texas Education Code §25.092, commonly called the 90 percent rule: credit for a class is conditioned on the student attending at least 90 percent of the days the class is offered.

Excused status protects your child from truancy consequences and protects the district's funding. It does not, by itself, exempt your child from the attendance threshold required to earn class credit.

For a young child in elementary school this is rarely the binding constraint. For an older student missing the same class period repeatedly, it can become one, and it is much easier to plan around in August than to discover in May.

Two things follow. If therapy hours are substantial, the question is which period is being missed, not just how many hours, because losing the same class every week is a different risk profile than losing a rotating one. And if the 90 percent threshold looks like it could come into play, that is a conversation for the ARD committee now, while there are still options.

Where this goes wrong: total hours are tracked and the specific period is not.

What §25.087(b-3) does not authorize

The statute permits temporary absences for part of the school day to attend appointments. TEA is explicit that it should not be read as creating a dual enrollment option, meaning it does not let a student be concurrently enrolled in a public school and a private program for grades K through 12.

The provision is about leaving for an appointment and coming back. It is not a mechanism for splitting the school day between two programs.

Putting the citation in writing

A short email at the start of the year names the subsection and creates a dated record, which is easier than reconstructing a position after a truancy notice arrives.

Subject: Attendance coding for therapy appointments, [child's name], [grade]

Hello [attendance clerk or campus administrator],

[Child's name] has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and attends ABA therapy appointments during the school year. On appointment days, [he/she/they] will attend school and return the same day.

Under Texas Education Code §25.087(b-3), a temporary absence for a student diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to receive a generally recognized service, including applied behavior analysis, is a temporary absence under §25.087(b)(2), and TEA guidance confirms these absences must be excused.

Could you confirm how these absences will be coded, and who I should send appointment documentation to? I would also like to discuss the makeup-work plan at our next ARD meeting.

Thank you,
[Your name and contact information]

Most of the time, that email settles it. Attendance staff are generally applying a rule they know, and the autism-specific subsection is genuinely obscure. Naming it resolves most of these conversations before they become disputes.

What to check

• Both citations saved where you can reach them: Texas Education Code §25.087(b-3), and TEA's guidance page on temporary absences of students with disabilities. One screenshot on your phone.
• A dated written request to the campus, sent at the start of the year, before any absences accumulate.
• The therapy schedule checked against the same-day requirement, which is the condition most likely to disqualify an otherwise valid absence.
• Which class period each recurring appointment falls in, named, not just the number of hours missed.
• The date of the next ARD meeting, with the 90 percent rule on the agenda if the same period recurs.
• The makeup-work plan in the ARD record. TEA guidance points the committee at this directly.
• Written confirmation of how these absences are coded, and who receives appointment documentation.

Each item on this list is a document or a date. If any of them cannot be produced, that is the specific thing to raise in writing, and the provision it comes from is in the table above.

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Sources

1. Texas Education Agency, "Guidance Regarding Temporary Absences of Students with Disabilities." Link
2. Texas Education Code §25.087, Excused Absences. Includes subsections (b)(2), (b-3), and (d). Education Code Chapter 25
3. Texas Education Code §25.092, the 90 percent attendance rule for class credit. Same chapter as above.
4. Texas Insurance Code §1355.015(b), referenced within §25.087(b-3) as the definition of a health care practitioner providing generally recognized autism services.
5. Texas Education Agency, Texas SPED Support, "ARD Supports." Definition and required membership of the admission, review, and dismissal committee. Link

About this article

Written by Megan Butler, VP of Clinical Operations · Clinically reviewed by Janelle Deveau, MA, BCBA, LBA · 2026-08-13

What this is. A summary of what Texas attendance law and TEA's own guidance say, with links to both. It is not legal advice, and districts vary in how they apply these rules, so if your school responds differently than this describes, that is worth raising at your next ARD meeting. Your district's handbook may also add procedures of its own.