What applies
What actually applies to you
Start with the correction, because it's the one that costs districts money in wasted compliance spend.
Federal OSHA does not cover your employees
Texas has no OSHA State Plan. Federal OSHA covers most private-sector workers in Texas — and OSHA's own guidance is explicit that in states without a plan, state and local government workers are not covered by federal OSHA. Your ISD cannot be OSHA-cited for hazard communication.
If a chemical rep is selling you on avoiding OSHA fines, they don't know your regulatory environment. (Federal OSHA does reach a private janitorial contractor working in your buildings — different employer, different jurisdiction.)
What does apply: the Texas Hazard Communication Act
Health & Safety Code Ch. 502 and 25 TAC Ch. 295, enforced by DSHS, which explicitly covers "a public school." This is your real obligation, and it's where I can take work off your plate:
| Requirement |
Citation |
What it means |
| Workplace Chemical List of hazardous chemicals normally present above 55 gallons or 500 pounds, updated annually (by December 31), retained 30 years |
25 TAC §295.4 / HSC §502.005 |
A list, per work area, kept for three decades |
| SDS for every hazardous chemical purchased, legible and available to employees on request during the same shift; missing SDS obtained within 30 business days, and the chemical may not be used until you have it |
§295.5 / HSC §502.006 |
This is the one I solve at delivery |
| Secondary container labeling — identity from the SDS plus hazard warnings (§295.6(d)); legible and in English (§295.6(e)) |
25 TAC §295.6 |
Every spray bottle off your dilution station |
| Written program + training before assignment to duties with exposure; training records with dates, names, subjects, instructor, kept at least 5 years |
§295.7 / HSC §502.009 |
Not on a fixed annual cycle |
| Post the DSHS employee notice |
§295.12 |
Free, easy, and routinely missed |
| Administrative penalties up to $500/violation; civil up to $2,000/day, capped at $20,000 per violation; 15 business days to certify correction after a Notice of Violation |
§295.11 / HSC §502.014–.015 |
|
One thing to un-learn: DSHS states HazCom training in Texas is not required annually. It's before assignment, plus additional training when exposure potential increases significantly or new hazard information arrives. If a vendor is selling you an annual refresher as a legal requirement, it isn't one.
Bloodborne pathogens — a Texas rule, narrower than OSHA's
Health & Safety Code Ch. 81, Subchapter H and 25 TAC Ch. 96 require governmental units to maintain exposure control plans; DSHS confirms Texas public school districts must implement them, and publishes a model plan (June 2024) you can adopt. The model requires annual plan review, training before initial assignment and annually thereafter, hep B vaccine offered within 10 working days, and decontamination using an EPA-registered germicide.
Being precise: §96.201's enumerated scope reaches "public school district clinics" and sharps exposure. Whether it reaches every custodian district-wide is arguable. In practice districts extend the plan to custodial and athletic staff as policy — which is the right call, and what the model plan is built for.
Requires administrators to exclude any child having or suspected of having a listed condition, and sets readmission criteria: fever-free 24 hours; diarrhea-free 24 hours; ringworm covered or treatment begun; wound drainage contained in a clean dry bandage; strep 24 hours after antibiotics.
Honest read: §97.7 is an exclusion rule. It imposes no cleaning duty. The cleaning language lives in the DSHS Communicable Disease Chart (rev. 3/4/2024), which is guidance — it directs facilities to develop procedures for "routine care, cleaning, and disinfection of environmental surfaces." Useful, not enforceable.
Purchasing — the number changed
Texas Education Code §44.031(a), as amended by SB 1173 (2025), effective September 1, 2025: district contracts for goods and services valued at $100,000 or more in the aggregate per 12-month period must use a listed best-value method. It was $50,000. TEA's own November 2025 guidance confirms the $100,000 tier.
Below $100,000 there is no state competitive-bid obligation — subject to your board policy, and to federal thresholds if the purchase is grant-funded (micro-purchase $15,000, simplified acquisition $350,000 as of October 1, 2025; TEA instructs districts to follow the more restrictive rule).
Above it, riding a cooperative contract is the compliant shortcut: Local Gov't Code §271.102 provides that a local government purchasing through a co-op "satisfies any state law requiring the local government to seek competitive bids," and §271.101 names school districts.
Two more worth knowing:
- §44.031(b)(7) makes "the total long-term cost to the district to acquire the vendor's goods or services" a statutory best-value criterion. That is the legal basis for buying concentrate and dilution control over ready-to-use — cost per diluted gallon, not cost per case. (Note (b)(6) is the separate HUB-compliance factor.)
- §44.032 makes it a Class B misdemeanor to use separate or sequential purchases to dodge the threshold. I will never suggest splitting an order, and you should walk away from a rep who does.
Federal, and it binds every custodian regardless
FIFRA §12(a)(2)(G) — using a disinfectant inconsistent with its label is unlawful, including cutting contact time short. Worth asking any vendor what their labeled contact time actually is: a product your crew has to keep wet for ten minutes is a product that will not get used correctly on a hallway of classroom desks, no matter what the label says.
No green cleaning mandate exists in Texas. About a dozen states have one; Texas isn't among them. Green is a best-value and board-policy argument here, never a compliance requirement — and I won't sell it to you as one.
