BY HALEY VELASCO
Zooming out
Looking ahead
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 2017-21, 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%. 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 worth of special education programs in 2020-21, of which the state paid for $4 billion, creating a $2.3 billion gap.
Special education has been a challenge for Texas, said Jolene Sanders, advocacy director for the nonprofit Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities, according to its website. The state has seen a spike in students needing special education, which 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, Sanders said. Previously, Texas had a cap on the number of students a school district could classify as needing special education at 8.5%, Sanders said. Since removing the cap in 2017, that number across the state has increased from around 9% of students to
In 2018, education consultant and research group Gibson recommended in a report 27 ways for CCISD to improve its special services department. Of those, nine have been implemented, including improved communication with parents, monitoring and tracking practices, and more training opportunities for teachers, according to district documents. CCISD is waiting on the district’s systematic review of the special education department by the TEA, which reviews all local education agencies across the state over a six-year period, according to a presentation from the district presented at the board of trustees’ Sept. 9 meeting. The review for CCISD began on Aug. 30, Staley said. Meanwhile, CCISD officials and special needs advocates said they are looking to the upcoming legislative session in January and hoping for some changes to both funding and the special education model. Sanders said she believes the current model, which bases much of the funding districts get on the physical placement of a student, is “woefully inadequate.” Instead, advocates are looking to a service intensity model, which would base services for individual students around their specific needs—and providing funding based on that. The 2023 session did not net much in the way of public education funding, Sanders said. Many bills were left on the cutting-room floor due to, in many cases, officials attaching items to them that weren’t as popular, she said. Going into the upcoming legislative session, Sanders said she and other advocates are hoping for key changes in special education, namely the service intensity model. “The [current] model hasn’t been revised in over 30 years,” she said. “[Legislators] are fighting 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.”
Increase in special education students by state
KEY
States that decreased
+0-5%
+5.1-10%
+10.1-15%
+15.1-20%
+>20%
Texas is the lone state in the country to increase its special education enrollment by over 20% from 2017-21.
+21%
Texas made up more than half the national growth in special education students from 2017 to 2021.
+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
In their own words
“There have been challenges and a progression, but overall I’m satisfied with our journey. … When we got [my child] in the right program and [with] the right people, … it really helped lighten the load.” NICOLE HAYES, CCISD PARENT
CCISD parents Christina Bui and Nicole Hayes both have children who have received years of special education programming at Clear Creek ISD. Both described their experience as overwhelmingly positive. For Hayes, her child is now in 11th grade. She said her child for the most part is no longer in need of those resources and classes. While the first few years of service were a challenge, things turned a corner when she transferred her child to a struc- tured learning lab while in elementary school. The lab is geared toward individualized intervention for
social and communication skills, according to the district’s website. For Bui, whose daughter is a senior, she said the district has gone out of its way to “bend over backwards” for her.
21
BAY AREA EDITION
Powered by FlippingBook