89th Texas Legislature Regular Session Wrap-Up
SUMMARY – The 89th Texas Legislature marked a decade of bipartisan commitment to mental health at the Texas Capitol, leveraging both budget and legislative initiatives to expand mental health access, address workforce challenges, and drive innovation through research and promising new treatments.
Detail page
$10.41B
for behavioral health funding across 30 state agencies
$54M
for Youth Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams
$32.65M
to maintain and expand Multisystemic Therapy (MST) capacity
$170.2M
for the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program
When the dust settled in early June, SB 1 (Huffman), the 2026-27 General Appropriations Act, included $10.41 billion for behavioral health funding across 30 state agencies. This marked an increase of more than $3.8 billion in ongoing funding – nearly 60% – since 2015. HB 500 (Bonnen), the supplemental budget, included an additional $214.9 million for specific mental health projects.
In addition, the 89th Texas Legislature:
- Created the Dementia Prevention Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) to expedite innovation in research on dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and related disorders
- Established the Texas First Responder Peer Network to provide confidential peer support to firefighters and EMS personnel, based on the Texas Law Enforcement Peer Network
- Fully funded the Texas Child Mental Health Consortium
- Expanded inpatient psychiatric capacity across the state
- Doubled the School Safety Allotment from $10 per student in average daily attendance to $20 per student
- Continued its investment in the Texas Veterans + Family Alliance Grant Program to provide mental health services for veterans and their families