Texas House bill by Rep. Howard mandates inclusion of nursing school applications in medical and dental service

Passed bill authored by State Rep. Donna Howard seeks to streamline the admissions process by mandating that consolidated application services for medical and dental schools also include nursing school applications, according to the Texas Legislature website.

In the House, 54 Democrats and 34 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while 49 Republicans opposed it.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, 11 Democrats and 20 Republicans voted in favor, with no opposing votes.

Donna Howard introduced the bill in the Texas House on Friday, Feb. 14, during the 89th regular legislative session.

Howard graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA.

Howard, a Democrat, was elected to the Texas State House in 2006 to represent the state’s 48th House district, replacing previous state representative Todd Baxter.

According to the Texas Legislature, the bill’s official text was summarized as follows: ‘Relating to including nursing school applications in a consolidated application service’.

The following is our breakdown, based on the actual bill text, and may include interpretation to clarify its provisions.

In essence, this bill mandates that any service or organization providing consolidated application services for medical or dental schools, such as the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service, must also include applications to nursing schools within Texas. The inclusion of nursing school applications in such services aims to streamline the admissions process for prospective nursing students and will apply to applications starting with the 2026 fall semester. The effective date for this change is set for Sept. 1, 2025.

The bill was co-authored by Rep. Vincent Perez (Democrat – District 77).

The bill received its final legislative approval on Wednesday, May 28, and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday, June 20.

Bills in Texas go through a multi-step legislative process, including committee review, debates, and votes in both chambers before reaching a final decision. Each session, there are typically thousands of bills introduced, but only a portion successfully navigate the process to become law.

You can read more about the bills and other measures here.