The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) sent the following two letters to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) regarding its implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
With the first letter, OSEP notified TEA that it will reduce the state’s allocation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act due to the State’s failure to maintain state financial support for special education and related services in FY 2012. The amount of the reduction is $33,302,428 and follows the requirements set forth in Public Law 108-446, section 612(a)(18).
The second letter is a follow up to the Department’s letter to TEA on August 27, 2021, that requested requesting information to follow up monitoring reports that indicated non-compliance with IDEA, specifically that TEA was not meeting its requirements to ensure the implementation of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for students eligible for IDEA services. As you know, OSEP conducted multiple monitoring activities when it was reported widely that TEA had established an arbitrary cap on the number of students who would receive IDEA services. The October 1 letter informs TEA that the Department of Education is imposing special conditions on the state regarding the use of its federal IDEA funds in order to improve the delivery of FAPE to students with disabilities who reside in Texas.
