Texas has been Quietly Denying Special Ed Services for a Decade

[Paratus]

If you are a Texas parent with school age kids you have to read this.

Basically the Texas Education Agency in 2004 arbitrarily decided that to many students were receiving special education help. They set a statewide goal of no more than 8.5% of the student body would receive services down from the nationwide average of 13%. This is against federal law which states public schools must provide special education services to those who need it.

The Houston Chronicle has 7 part story on this.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/?cmpid=hcael

"We were basically told in a staff meeting that we needed to lower the number of kids in special ed at all costs," said Jamie Womack Williams, who taught in the Tyler Independent School District until 2010. "It was all a numbers game."

Texas is the only state that has ever set a target for special education enrollment, records show.

It has been remarkably effective.

In the years since its implementation, the rate of Texas kids receiving special education has plummeted from near the national average of 13 percent to the lowest in the country — by far.

In 2015, for the first time, it fell to exactly 8.5 percent.

If Texas provided services at the same rate as the rest of the U.S., 250,000 more kids would be getting critical services such as therapy, counseling and one-on-one tutoring.

"It's extremely disturbing," said longtime education advocate Jonathan Kozol, who described the policy as a cap on special education meant to save money.

"It's completely incompatible with federal law," Kozol said. "It looks as if they're actually punishing districts that meet the needs of kids."

I can confim this story from personal experience. The school fought us from day one on providing services to one of my kids. After originally identifying my child as possibly needing headstart (they didn't by a single point) around the time this edict was being passed down:

• They refused verbal requests to test for disabilities
• After paying $$$$ to confirm a disability ourselves they tried to refuse service because our child's grades were to good (this is against federal law)
• Relented enough to put our child on 504 (much cheaper than services)
• Refused to provide a laptop per the 504 agreement (we paid for one until 8th grade when they were provided to all students)

After a couple years, a lot of $$$$ and time spent fighting with the district they finally provided a minimally appropriate amount of services. (My favorite bit of idiocy was when we asked if copies of the textbooks could be made available to our child instead of relying on the online versions. They gave us look like we were insane. How could we possibly expect the school to provide a textbook!!!)

Since my wife and I were able to spend the time and money to help our child and force the school to help, they are getting decent grades in AP classes now. I'm sure other kids in similar situations without those resources, as per the article, have been screwed.

Some in the state legislature are currently trying to rectify this.

 

[ivwshane]

I wonder if this affected their overall test scores and if it impacted its results which has had a steady increase in performance.

 

[brycejones]

Not shocking at all......

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Sorry to hear you had to deal with this with you child. Seems odd they put so much into their ESL programs.

 

[interchange]

From my limited experience with child psychiatry, I can say that it requires significant effort for outside providers to get appropriate assistance in school, and I have seen worthlessly generic testing and IEPs for kids when the school uses their own resources to address a problem.

I think they simply don't have the resources to effectively do what they are legally obligated to do, so there are a lot of ways to look like something is being addressed when it isn't.

 

[Sheep221]

That's pretty bad, I mean are you able to sue the state? It's clear violation of law!

 

[Paratus]

Sorry to hear you had to deal with this with you child. Seems odd they put so much into their ESL programs.

Thanks. We've made a lot of progress. It's just been tougher and longer than it should have been.

 

[Paratus]

That's pretty bad, I mean are you able to sue the state? It's clear violation of law!

It sure seems like something should be done.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Shitty, we had a long fight for my son in our district, TX sounds worse

 

[gplracer]

The problem is that schools are also sited for being out of compliance if their percentage of special education students is too high.schools get it from both ends.that said any student who needs and qualifies for special education services should get them.

 

[Sunburn74]

This practice has been known for a long time. they recently increased funding for CPS and cut more education funding actually. Its hard to argue texas really cares about kids once they arrive out of the wombs. Also what is little known is the state has been sitting on a 10 billion dollar emergency slush fund for quite sometime. Go Texas!

 

[agent00f]

Sorry to hear you had to deal with this with you child. Seems odd they put so much into their ESL programs.

Not so odd that degenerates can't pretend to be compassionate without spiting some lower status browns. As further evidence: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/4/

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Not so odd that degenerates can't pretend to be compassionate without spiting some lower status browns. As further evidence: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/4/

Funny my brown Asian children received ESL education services for first years of being in school here in Texas. My brown Asian grandson is currently receiving ESL education services.

 

[agent00f]

Funny my brown Asian children received ESL education services for first years of being in school here in Texas. My brown Asian grandson is currently receiving ESL education services.

Party before family, amirite? Or is asian not mexican enough?

 

[local]

I don't know what the current situation is but it was getting ridiculous back in the late 90's. I was one of only two kids in my 10th grade science class that didn't get a sheet of paper with the answers on it for every test. Sadly out of twenty some odd kids in the class only four of us passed legitimately, the rest were allowed to retake the final until they passed.

 

[kage69]

And here we thought Texas just hated science, gays and reproductive healthcare. Turns out special needs education is included too.

"Don't mess with Texas," should be changed to "Texas: what a mess."

I don't know how those Austinites do it. Maybe all the good BBQ and music helps?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

The problem is that schools are also sited for being out of compliance if their percentage of special education students is too high.schools get it from both ends.that said any student who needs and qualifies for special education services should get them.

Curious, but I was wondering if there was any potential abuse of this program.... Are there legitimate cases where the school should deny special treatment for someone claiming to need special education? would they get advantages in the special education that they would not otherwise?

Just like handicap stickers, any government program can be prone to be a cesspool of abuse.

 

[thraashman]

Curious, but I was wondering if there was any potential abuse of this program.... Are there legitimate cases where the school should deny special treatment for someone claiming to need special education? would they get advantages in the special education that they would not otherwise?

Just like handicap stickers, any government program can be prone to be a cesspool of abuse.

Well a lot can fall under certain umbrellas. Speech impairment is the second largest percentage up there. Hell, I had to go through speech therapy as a child because I had a pronounced lisp (which speech therapy thankfully helped me fix).

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Isn't calling any level of education in Texas "special" a little... redundant?

 

[momeNt]

Arbitrarily setting a GOAL to lower services? And well below the national average at that? Really disturbing.

Is something going to come of this? Class action?

Congrats on toughing through it OP and having your kids in AP classes.

 

[Jhhnn]

Curious, but I was wondering if there was any potential abuse of this program.... Are there legitimate cases where the school should deny special treatment for someone claiming to need special education? would they get advantages in the special education that they would not otherwise?

Just like handicap stickers, any government program can be prone to be a cesspool of abuse.

Seems unlikely. It's like Lake Woebegone- parents want to believe their kids are above average or at least normal. If anything, there a likely a lot more kids who could use some help not getting it than vice-versa.

 

[thraashman]

It's Texas, aren't we all just happy (and a little bit surprised) that they're not just executing all special needs kids?

 

[momeNt]

Curious, but I was wondering if there was any potential abuse of this program.... Are there legitimate cases where the school should deny special treatment for someone claiming to need special education? would they get advantages in the special education that they would not otherwise?

Just like handicap stickers, any government program can be prone to be a cesspool of abuse.

I sincerely doubt it. The combination of admitting you have a defective child, and then the potential bullying of special ed, is a large enough deterrent that the number of special ed cases is probably skewed too low.

 

[Jhhnn]

Texas has better things to spend their money on than education, like implementing the death penalty, preventing reefer madness & defending unconstitutional laws relating to abortion, voting rights & some others, I'm sure.

Hell- I'm sure this wasn't free-

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallp...ploys-state-guard-to-stave-off-obama-takeover

 

[pauldun170]

As per current GOP talking points: "The state should not be involved with helping your special needs children when private industry is capable of performing the same function"

As per current Texan Republican talking points: "If your child has special needs, then your church is your best solution. Pray the special needs away."

As per Trump's talking points: "I prefer my kids to not be special needs."