Texas SB179 Explained: Understanding the Law and How to Stay Compliant
Why SB179 Matters Now More Than Ever
School counselors in Texas wear many hats—academic advisors, mental health supporters, career coaches, and often, de facto administrators. But too often, their time is consumed by non-counseling duties like test coordination, lunch duty, or paperwork.
Senate Bill 179 (SB179) changed that. Signed into law in 2021 during Texas' 87th Legislative Session, SB179 addresses a long-standing concern: counselors need to spend the majority of their time doing the job they were trained for—serving students.
This blog post breaks down everything Texas educators need to know about SB179, what it means for compliance, and how Pathways by Education Advanced simplifies reporting and supports counselors in maximizing their time with students.
What Is Texas SB179?
SB179 is a Texas law that requires public school counselors to spend at least 80% of their total work time on duties that are part of a comprehensive school counseling program. These duties, aligned to the national standards, include:
- Academic advising
- Career and college planning
- Responsive services (mental health, crisis response)
- Personal/social development
Summary of SB179 Requirements
- 80/20 Rule: No more than 20% of a counselor’s work time may be spent on non-counseling duties.
- Time Tracking Required: Schools must track and document how each counselor spends their time.
- District Accountability: School districts are required to ensure compliance and may be held responsible for violations.
[View the full SB179 legislative analysis]
Why SB179 Was Introduced: Restoring Counselor Time
According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the recommended counselor-to-student ratio is 250:1. But in Texas, it’s closer to 430:1. That means each counselor must serve hundreds of students—often while being asked to handle lunch duty, proctor exams, or file district forms.
SB179 aims to restore balance by legally requiring schools to free up counselor schedules so they can spend more time delivering:
- Direct Services - One-on-one guidance sessions, group counseling, student assessments
- Indirect Services - Collaboration with teachers, parents, and mental health providers
The Challenge for Districts
While SB179 promotes better student outcomes, it also adds pressure to track, report, and prove compliance—a process that can become another burden without the right systems in place.
“Pathways is a one-stop-shop where you can go to see everything all together. And to have it all in one place and not have to scramble to find data when we meet with the student, parent, or administrator is really making us more efficient at our jobs.” Lauren Buckley, Counselor, Vidor High School
What Are Texas Comprehensive School Counseling Programs?
The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs outlines four major domains:
- Guidance Curriculum
- Responsive Services
- Individual Planning
- System Support
SB179 ensures that 80% of a counselor’s time is spent supporting these pillars. Pathways helps align activity logs to these domains so districts can clearly demonstrate that counselors are spending time where it matters most.
How Pathways Helps Schools Comply with SB179
One of the biggest challenges districts face under SB179 is accurately tracking and reporting how school counselors spend their time—without piling even more administrative work onto already overburdened staff.
Most schools lack a streamlined way to document counselor activities in alignment with Texas' required counseling domains, making compliance both labor-intensive and error-prone.
That’s where Pathways by Education Advanced steps in, providing a purpose-built, intuitive platform that transforms time tracking from a manual burden into an automated, insight-rich process.
Built-In Counselor Activity Logging
Counselors shouldn't have to choose between documenting their work and doing their work. Pathways makes it easy for counselors to log their activities in real time, using simple and flexible options that match the flow of their day.
Whether the activity is tied to a specific student or a group event, each interaction can be categorized by counseling domain, providing a clear picture of how time is being spent.
With Pathways, districts can:
- Log counselor activities by student-specific or general group interactions
- Tag each interaction with the appropriate Texas Counseling Domain
- Automatically track total minutes and categorize time by direct vs. indirect services
Texas Counseling Domain Student Log Report
To comply with SB179, districts need more than just a log—they need actionable insight. The Texas Counseling Domain Student Log Report takes the raw data counselors enter and turns it into meaningful metrics. This report is tailor-made to demonstrate compliance with the 80/20 requirement, providing breakdowns by domain, time, and student activity level.
This report:
- Aggregates data by counseling domain, student, and activity type
- Calculates the 80/20 counselor time split at personal, campus, and district levels
- Helps users identify counselors or campuses that fall out of compliance
Data Integrity and Visibility
Without centralized systems, counselor logs can easily get lost in spreadsheets or siloed folders—making district-level oversight nearly impossible. Pathways solves this with secure data storage, seamless integration with student information systems, and real-time dashboards that give leaders immediate access to the data they need to stay compliant and support staff effectively.
Pathways:
- Stores all logs securely
- Integrates with SIS for student rosters
- Offers real-time dashboards so central office teams can monitor compliance without waiting for uploads or manual reports
"I don’t need my counselors spending all their time in spreadsheets—I need them focused on students. Every moment we save them, they’re able to give back to our kids." Paul Trevino, Principal, Huntsville High School
Counselor-First Tools That Drive Student Success
While SB179 has brought much-needed attention to how counselors spend their time, it’s just one piece of a much larger puzzle. True student support goes beyond compliance—it means ensuring every student is on track for graduation, prepared for college or a career, and supported by a well-informed, efficient counseling team.
That’s why Pathways is designed not just to meet legislative mandates, but to empower counselors as the central drivers of student success. Pathways supports districts with powerful features that extend far beyond SB179 compliance:
- Graduation tracking and audits - Ensure students meet credit, assessment, and endorsement requirements with automated diploma progress monitoring.
- CCMR readiness reporting - Track college, career, and military readiness metrics in real time and identify students eligible for outcomes-based funding.
- Perkins V compliance for CTE - Monitor CTE program of study completion and industry-based certifications with data aligned to Perkins accountability.
- 4-year planning with endorsements - Help students set and follow personalized graduation paths, complete with career endorsements and editable plans.
- Parent communication for goal-setting and FAFSA requirements - Engage families with exportable PGPs, alerts, and tracking for key milestones like FAFSA completion and college applications.
This all-in-one solution is already transforming district operations across Texas. Counselors regain time. Students get better support. Administrators gain compliance visibility. And schools stay ahead of ever-changing regulations with a platform built for flexibility, accuracy, and real-time insight.
“Pathways has freed up time for me to focus on counseling activities, like meeting with students individually and helping them. It is my go-to place where I can find all the info right there without having to dig through different files, spreadsheets, and other sources.” Sara Stevens, Counselor, Miles High School
Don’t Just Comply—Thrive with Pathways
Texas SB179 reflects a powerful shift in public education: a formal acknowledgment that school counselors are not administrative assistants—they’re student success advocates.
With Pathways, your district will:
- Meet the 80/20 counselor time tracking requirement
- Automate reporting and eliminate spreadsheets
- Empower counselors to do what they do best—support students
Click here to book a demo and see how Pathways will help your district simplify SB179 compliance and streamline every aspect of counseling, planning, and reporting.
