Some officials vow to fight limits put on special ed

The vice chairman of the State Board of Education, a Houston school board member, a key state senator and scores of parents and disability advocates all expressed strong opposition on Monday to a Texas Education Agency performance-based monitoring system that has kept thousands of disabled children out of special education since 2004.

The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that TEA officials had arbitrarily decided in implementing the system more than a decade ago to keep special education enrollments at 8.5 percent, a rate far below the national average of 13 percent. Since then, those officials have forced school districts to comply by strictly auditing them and requiring many to file "corrective action plans" for serving too many kids.

Despite the system's longevity, few outside the TEA and school district special education departments knew the 8.5 percent target even existed, the Chronicle found.

For the first time since the system went into effect, the statewide special education average fell to exactly 8.5 percent in 2015.

Thomas Ratliff, a Mount Pleasant Republican who is the second-highest-ranking member of the State Board of Education, expressed dismay at TEA's 8.5 percent special education target.

"It looks awfully arbitrary and in no way mirrors reality," he said. "The concentric circles of damage that this has done I think is immeasurable at this point."

State Sen. Eddie Lucio, the vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, called the issue an "utmost priority."

"We have a constitutional duty and a moral obligation to provide all Texas children with the services that are required to ensure that every student can thrive academically," said Lucio, D-Brownsville, echoing statements made by several of his Democratic colleagues in the Legislature. "By urging schools to limit the number of students they enroll in special education services, our state is turning its back on students that need our help the most."

If Texas provided special education at the national average, 250,000 more students would be receiving services annually across the state. The Chronicle found that of the nation's 100 largest school systems, only 10 - all in Texas - had special education enrollments lower than 8.5 percent. Houston, at 7.4 percent, and Dallas, at 6.9 percent, had among the lowest special ed enrollments when compared to the nation's other 25 largest cities. New York, by contrast, provides special education services to about 19 percent of students.

As controversy quickly grew among educators and parents who have struggled to have their children evaluated for, and placed in, special education programs, Texas' efforts to curtail enrollments statewide intruded on the Houston school board's first workshop with new Superintendent Richard Carranza, who came to Texas from California, where special education enrollments average 11.1 percent. Maine has the nation's highest rate of special education, at 17.5 percent.

Carranza declined comment on Houston's special ed enrollment, which has declined from 10 percent when the state first implemented the monitoring system's 8.5 percent target in 2004 to the current 7.4 percent.

'A grave injustice'

But two board members said they hope to make special education a priority for the district.

Later in the day, another board member, Rhonda Skillern-Jones, a former board president, said she hopes the Texas Education Agency will eliminate the policy.

"It is a grave injustice to deprive any child of the resources necessary to learn, and to do so systematically is a travesty," said Skillern-Jones. "Shame on those complicit in engineering this plan."

Skillern-Jones said she plans to work with Carranza "to review our policies and practices on how we serve our families."

The school district's special education director, Sowmya Kumar, said in an interview last week that the district had not denied services to any children with disabilities. She said that better early intervention had led to the 25 percent reduction in special ed students in the district.

In a written statement to the Chronicle, TEA officials denied that they had kept disabled students of out special education and said their guideline calling for enrollments of 8.5 percent was not a cap or a target but an indicator of performance by school districts. They said state-by-state comparisons were inappropriate and attributed the state's dramatic declines in special education enrollments to new teaching techniques that have lowered the number of children with "learning disabilities," such as dyslexia.

Gene Acuña, a spokesman for the Texas Education Agency, declined further comment. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus also declined comment.

Previously, former Gov. Rick Perry, during whose administration the 8.5 percent enrollment target was first put in place, declined to discuss the monitoring system.

In Washington, a U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman confirmed that her office was ready to take action, if needed, to ensure that children with disabilities get services.

"We are looking into it," she said.

Federal mandate

Since 1975, federal law has mandated that public schools provide specialized education services to all eligible children with any type of disability - autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries, blindness, deafness and orthopedic disabilities among them.

The Chronicle, in a six-month investigation, found that no one has studied Texas' 32 percent drop in special ed enrollment. The Chronicle performed a survey of laws and enrollments in all 50 states, reviewed thousands of pages of TEA and school district records and interviewed hundreds of experts, educators and parents. Numerous state and national experts expressed surprise that Texas had by far the nation's lowest special education enrollments, given its highest rate of poverty, premature births, lack of medical care and other risk factors that have been shown to increase the need for special education.

On Monday, as a flood of families reacted with stories about the difficulties they have faced obtaining special education services for their children, local school districts faced tough questions.

"(The policy) is appalling," one Spring man said, "and explains a lot in how our grandson was treated in grade school."

The man said that his grandson was unable to get special education services despite being diagnosed with encopresis, a bowel movement condition.

Naoko Rodriguez of Del Rio, on the Texas-Mexico border, said her 7-year-old son's school made her feel crazy as she sought to get him help with his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disability in reading.

While both the Houston school district and TEA officials attributed enrollment declines to new instructional techniques, numerous experts told the Chronicle that there was no evidence those pedagogical methods - also in use nationwide - have lowered the need for special education.

In the state capital, several lawmakers and advocates began gearing up for an effort to address the policy during next year's legislative session.

"I guarantee there will be hearings on this," said state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston. "From a moral standpoint, this is just so egregious."

Several teachers and advocates, including Steven Aleman of Disability Rights Texas, said they are planning to be involved in the effort.

Ericka Mellon and Andrea Zelinski contributed to this report.