• Home
  • CJCAT
    • North and East Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association
    • South Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association
    • West Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association
  • Conferences
    • Conference Galleries
    • Conference Close-Up
  • Texas County Directory
  • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Submissions
    • Contact Us
    • Subscribe
    • Previous Issues
      • 2019 Previous Issues
      • 2018 Previous Issues
      • 2017 Previous Issues
      • 2016 Previous Issues
      • 2015 Previous Issues
      • 2014 Previous Issues

Texas County Progress

The Official Publication of the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas

  • Home
    • Feature Story
  • Monuments of Justice
    • Why Stop In
  • Emergency Response
  • Road & Bridge
  • Jails
  • County Focus
  • Veterans

KEY CONCEPT: Education Requirements

January 1, 2021 by County Progress

KEY QUESTION: What are the education requirements for County Judges and County Commissioners?

MAIN REFERENCE POINTS:

Judges: Texas Government Code Sections 56.006 and 74.025. The State of Texas delegated to the Court of Criminal Appeals the authority to establish the rules of judicial education. These rules are posted on the Texas Judicial Branch website at http://www.txcourts.gov/organizations/bar-education/judicial-education.aspx.

Commissioners: Texas Local Government Code 81.0025

TALKING POINTS:

Judges:

  1. Each County Judge performing judicial functions will, as an official duty:
    1. complete before taking office, or within one year after taking office, at least 30 hours of instruction in the administrative duties of office and substantive, procedural, and evidentiary laws unless the Judge has previously complied with this requirement and has been absent from the bench less than one year before taking the present office;
      1. each fiscal year thereafter complete at least 16 hours of instruction in substantive, procedural, and evidentiary laws, and court administration.
  2. Instruction credit completed during any fiscal year in excess of the minimum number of hours required may be applied to the following fiscal year’s requirement.
  3. The Court of Criminal Appeals website provides a list of program sponsors approved by the Court of Criminal Appeals Education Committee and the County Judges Education Committee for Constitutional County Judges that can be utilized to satisfy the education requirements. To view the list in full, go to: http://www.txcourts.gov/organizations/bar-education/judicial-education.aspx.
  4. A Constitutional County Judge is exempt from the continuing judicial education requirement for any fiscal year for which the Judge files an affidavit with the Registrar stating that the Judge does not perform judicial functions.

Commissioners:

  1. A County Commissioner must successfully complete at least 16 classroom hours of continuing education in the performance of the duties of County Commissioners at least once in each 12-month period.
  2. The continuing education courses must be certified by an accredited public institution of higher education.
  3. A Commissioner is entitled to carry forward from one 12-month period to the next not more than eight continuing education hours that the Commissioner completes in excess of the required 16 hours.
  4. For the purposes of removal from office under Subchapter B, Chapter 87 of the Local Government Code, “incompetency” in the case of a County Commissioner includes the failure to complete hours of continuing education.
  5. This section does not apply to a County Commissioner who:
    1. serves in a county with a population of 1.3 million or more;
    2. meets at least one of the following requirements:
      1. has served continuously for 12 years or more; or
      2. is an attorney licensed to practice law in this state for 12 years or more and has completed at least 64 hours of continuing education approved by the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas; and
    3. attends at least 15 hours of staff briefing on continuing education subjects in each 12-month period as approved by the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas.

In addition, this section does not apply to a County Commissioner who serves in a county with a population of 225,000 or more and who:

  1. has served continuously for 12 years or more; and
  2. in the 12-month period, completes at least three semester credit hours of graduate-level course work in a field of study directly related to county government with a grade of B or higher in each course completed during the period.

Filed Under: Education, Key Concept Tagged With: education

Subscribe to County Progress

Subscribe: Newsletter | Magazine

April 2021

April 2021
If you'd like to view our previous issues, click here.

Diversifying Revenues

Presentation by Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley

Search County Progress

Texas County Progress Courthouse Primer

County Courthouse Primer

The latest resolutions passed by the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas and the three Regional Associations are available at the links below.

County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas Resolutions 2020

South Texas Resolutions 2020

West Texas Resolutions 2020

North & East Texas Resolutions 2020

Opposition to SB 234/HB 749 Sample Resolution

The Cost of County Government: 2020 Unfunded Mandates Survey Report

Texas County Directory

Place your order for the updated 2021 Directory

Connect with us online.

Facebook spacer Twitter spacer LinkedIn

Search County Progress

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Print Friendly and PDF

County Progress

3457 Curry Lane
Abilene, TX 79606
325.673.4822
countyprogress@zacpubs.com

Categories

© 2021 · Zachry Publications