BREAKING: AI/NS Has Been Renewed for 5 Years! Can you thank Board Members?

Note: This is an email tool, not a petition. Please personalize your email by modifying the email text and subject line, and adding at least one reason why you support the AI/NS course.

Update: After a long and grueling process, the Texas SBOE finally voted to renew the American Indian/Native Studies Innovative course for another 5 years by a vote of 9-5 on June 27th.

You can see several powerful testimonies (2:37:00) and the final vote (4:15:00-4:41:00) on the TEA livestream for June 26th. Click here to see the final vote discussion (2:39:00) on June 27th.

On April 25, 2025, the current US Department of Education affirmed the right of school districts, tribal nations, and colleges and universities to teach "Native history."

This email tool will help you thank SBOE Members who voted in favor. Because the political context has changed in recent years, they need to know they did the right thing.

You should also ask for the course to be adopted in your local districts.

Local Implementation:

All Texas districts can begin to make plans to offer the course. Most districts will decide their 2026-2027 calendars in December 2025, so we are calling on all local communities to start asking for the course now. The updated course (2025-2030) is ready to view on the TEA website.

In 2023, the TEA Commission approved the AI/NS Innovative course. This year, because of new rules, the course and recommended resources were reviewed according to new "Suitability" rubrics. In addition, the Texas SBOE now had to approve the course renewal. That means that this year, the course met a significantly higher burden for approval than in 2023. School districts can feel confident that they have every right to adopt the course locally.

School districts and teachers can contact Grand Prairie ISD for additional implementation support. They should also take part in the annual AI/NS professional development workshop, which takes place in mid-June.

Background:

Since 2020, a team of native and native ally volunteers have worked to create a course in Native American Studies that the Texas SBOE called for in 2018. Although the previous SBOE Chair intended to move forward with the course in January 2024, the new Abbott-appointed SBOE Chair, Aaron Kinsey, has neglected to place the American Indian/Native Studies (AI/NS) course adoption on the SBOE agenda for an entire year. The AI/NS innovative course expires at the end of the 2025 academic year. After being pulled from the agenda in January 2025, the AI/NS course renewal was finally placed on the April agenda in 2025. The renewal vote was postponed, however, with SBOE leadership and TEA adding a review of the recommended course materials to the process. This represented a change in the review process in the middle of the 2024-2025 application cycle.

Because districts make crucial decisions about implementing new courses in the winter, the course needed to be renewed as soon as possible. Course renewal was also crucial so that AI/NS did not get placed on a "sunset list" and risk cancellation.

Although the renewal vote was delayed for two board meetings in January and April, after almost a year of community pressure and bipartisan support, the Texas SBOE finally approved the AI/NS course for renewal at the June 26 and June 27th SBOE board meetings in the summer of 2025.

Any Texas school district can now offer the course. The course will count for graduation credits.

The AI/NS course can also now be considered for full TEKS adoption, which would allow it to become a permanent Social Studies course elective in the state of Texas.

How can you help?

Take a minute to thank the board members who voted for the course renewal in June. Then help us prepare for the next leg of the journey: local adoption and TEKS-based adoption.

Here are some concrete steps you can take.

Step 1: Send a Personal Email

Use this email tool to send the Texas SBOE a personalized email. Make sure to introduce yourself and make the suggested email text your own.

Step 2: Sign and Share the Petition

If you have not yet done so, sign and share the AI/NS petition. Anyone can sign the petition.

Step 3: Ask Your District to Offer the AI/NS Course

If you have capacity to ask your district to offer the course, you can find a template letter here.

Step 4: Prepare a Letter of Endorsement for TEKS-based adoption

The Texas SBOE can consider the AI/NS course for TEKS-based adoption as early as the fall and winter of 2025-2026. This means that there will still be a need for individual letters of endorsement.

Use this Support Guide to help you create your own letter of endorsement.

How did we get here?

Since the Spring of 2020, a committee of Native community members and allies have been collectively developing a course in American Indian/Native Studies. The AI/NS course has been piloted at Grand Prairie ISD for three and a half years and was approved as an Innovative Course by the Texas Education Agency in the summer of 2023. Since then, the course has been adopted or is in the process of being adopted in Robstown ISD, Crowley ISD, and several other districts.

In November of 2023, previous SBOE Chair Ellis stated that he intended to place the AI/NS course for first reading on the January 2024 SBOE agenda.  In January 2024, the new SBOE Chair Aaron Kinsey pulled the AI/NS course from its expected place in the SBOE agenda. After receiving hundreds of emails and a petition signed by more than two thousand Texans, Chair Kinsey did not place the AI/NS course on the April, June, September, or November agendas. Instead, the Texas SBOE focused on passing a controversial curriculum project that sought to embed Christianity in the elementary curriculum.

Last March, Chair Kinsey stated that the AI/NS course was already an innovative course and that it was already available to Texas students. However, the course's innovative status expires at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. It is crucial that the AI/NS course be renewed by the end of 2025 academic year so that the innovative course does not expire for the following academic year. If the innovative course is allowed to expire, many districts will back away from teaching the course next year.

Despite heightened political rhetoric that makes it seem as if moving the course forward is impossible, a bipartisan assortment of SBOE board reps continue to support the course. They just needed the opportunity to actually consider the course for renewal. On June 27, 2025, the SBOE approved the AI/NS course through a bipartisan vote of 9-5 in favor.

While all districts should offer the AI/NS Innovative course as soon as possible, the AI/NS course will need to considered for TEKS-based adoption at the next available opportunity in order to avoid the risk of future cancellation.

The Texas community has been calling for Ethnic Studies courses for more than 40 years. More than thirty years ago, the SBOE approved Ethnic Studies courses, only to not fully support them or turn away from them when new leadership came in. Between 2018 and 2023, the SBOE board was willing to support Ethnic Studies courses on a bipartisan basis. Let's not allow the American Indian/Native Studies course to become hostage to the temporary political rhetoric of the day.

Native communities have been part of Texas for thousands of years and they will continue residing in Texas for thousands of years. Both federal and state institutions are beholden to laws and treaties that safeguard the cultural and educational rights of Native communities.

Texas Native and Ethnic Studies communities need your help.

Let's make history together.