Hotels would have to keep a working carbon monoxide detector in every room used for sleeping, not just a smoke detector, under one of six bills state Rep. Keresa Richardson filed Monday as the Texas Legislature opened bill filing for its 2027 session.
Richardson represents House District 61, which holds about two-thirds of McKinney's residents along with a quarter of Frisco and parts of Celina and Anna, according to the Texas Legislative Council's district breakdown. All six show up in the Legislature's daily filing record for Nov. 9.
Hotel safety
House Bill 534 would extend the state's hotel smoke detector law to carbon monoxide detectors, making it an offense for a hotel operator not to maintain both in sleeping rooms.
Hotels would also have to keep carbon monoxide detectors for guests who are deaf or hard of hearing, using a strobe light, at a rate of one per 60 rooms with a cap of five, and assign such a room to a guest who asks for one.
Buildings where most occupants stay at least 28 days in a row, along with hospitals and nursing homes, would not count as hotels.
Students and social media
- HB 569 would require student ID cards for sixth grade and up at public schools to print contact information for the National Sexual Assault Hotline and a state-designated youth crisis service, in addition to the suicide prevention lifeline and Crisis Text Line already required.
- HB 543 would add explicit deepfake material to a state law on social media reports. Platforms would have to confirm a user's report right away, remove reported child sexual abuse material or explicit deepfakes and identical copies within 48 hours, and update the user in writing within seven days. It would take effect Sept. 1, 2027.
Medicine and trades
- HB 523 would require medical schools to teach how to identify and treat Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of connective tissue disorders, for students who enter in fall 2028 or later, and would add a continuing education piece for doctors.
- HB 552 would create a plumbing service technician license, a step for workers who have finished required training and logged at least 2,000 hours as an apprentice under a journeyman or master plumber.
- HB 814 deals with civil liability for female genital mutilation; its text was not yet posted Monday.
