BY DANICA LLOYD & HALEY VELASCO
Zooming out
Looking ahead
Increase in special education students
Texas is the lone state in the country to increase its special education enrollment by over 20% from 2017-21. Texas made up more than half the national growth in special education students from 2017 to 2021.
The state’s spike in students needing special edu- cation services came after a series of investigations and lawsuits dating back to the late 2010s that found Texas was not providing special education services to enough students, said Jolene Sanders, advocacy director for the nonprot Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. Previously, Texas had an 8.5% cap on the number of students a school district could classify as need- ing special education, Sanders said. Since removing the cap in 2017, that number across the state has increased from around 9% of students to 14% during the 2023-24 school year. For the U.S., the average number of students receiving special education services is 15%, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. From 2017-18 to 2020-21, Texas saw a 21% spike in students needing special education, TEA data shows, the highest increase of any state. The second-highest increase was less than 12%, and the national average was 3%.
Going into the upcoming legislative session, the district and other advocacy groups hope lawmakers update the funding model to be based on the intensity of services provided. “The [current] model hasn’t been revised in over 30 years,” Sanders said. “[Legislators] are ¦ghting back and forth because everyone wants their bills passed and their priorities. And somehow special [education] funding ends up being a bargaining tool. And nobody has won so far.” CFISD is also advocating for other recommendations from the December 2022 Texas Commission on Special Education Funding Report to the 88th Texas Legislature, such as providing special education teacher stipends and increasing reimbursement rates for special education transportation services.
+21%
+106,000 additional students
The nation saw an average of 3% growth in special education students from 2017-21.
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
Sanders said this correction has not only led to more students in special education, but has created more challenges with funding. Advocacy group Disabilities Rights Texas noted in a 2023 report that school districts funded $6.3 billion in special education programs in 2020-21, but the state only covered $4 billion.
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