A Houston Chronicle investigation has found that Texas has deprived thousands of kids of special education services.
…”Walker knew the law was on her side. Since 1975, Congress has required public schools in the United States to provide specialized education services to all eligible children with any type of disability.
But what she didn’t know is that in Texas, unelected state officials have quietly devised a system that has kept thousands of disabled kids like Roanin out of special education.
Over a decade ago, the officials arbitrarily decided what percentage of students should get special education services — 8.5 percent — and since then they have forced school districts to comply by strictly auditing those serving too many kids.
Their efforts, which started in 2004 but have never been publicly announced or explained, have saved the Texas Education Agency billions of dollars but denied vital supports to children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries, even blindness and deafness, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.”
Read the full article at http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/?t=9c54f4ac20
This article has already generated much attention & discussion. State legislators & state board of education members are talking about taking actions. The federal department of education sent a letter to TEA saying unless the state can show that no students were harmed by this standard, that the state must remove it. It will be important for parents & advocates to monitor actions taken by TEA & the legislature. Schools must be monitored & held to meeting their responsibility toward students with disabilities. This includes setting high expectations for students, which ARD/IEP teams often do not do.
The Houston Chronicle has just published another article in this series. This one focuses on how some districts went about “purging” (declaring them no longer eligible) many students with disabilities from special ed services to lower their % of students served. This article is at: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied
On 11/2/16 TEA responded to the Department of Education’s letter. They denied that any harm had been done by TEA or school districts to students. This letter has generated much negative response from parents, and organizations. The Houston Chronicle published an article on the TEA letter. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/TEA-suspends-special-education-cap-10534865.php?t=95ed46513a438d9cbb&cmpid=email-premium
Disability Rights TX responded in a short article, http://www.disabilityrightstx.org/files/DRTx_statement_on_TEA_response_to_DOE_nov_2_2016.pdf On 11/7/16 they will have a discussion of the TEA letter that can be viewed live or later. TO WATCH THE LIVE VIDEO:
At the time of the event, please go to our main Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/DisabilityRightsTx/ and wait for the live video to begin. If it does not begin within a few seconds, refresh your browser and scroll down until you see the live video.
(If you are unable to join us live, the video will be posted on our Facebook page immediately following the event. We will also post it a few days later on our YouTube channel.)