Debate set for special ed bills

Legislators begin tackling the issue after cap revealed

AUSTIN — After six months of talking about the need to fix Texas’ embattled special education system, state lawmakers are getting to work.

The House Public Education Committee is planning to hold hearings Tuesday on a half-dozen different pieces of legislation related to special education. It will be the first chance for many parents to speak with lawmakers since the Houston Chronicle revealed that Texas had set a de facto cap on the percentage of students who could receive special ed services, blocking tens of thousands of students with disabilities from needed help.

The proposals set to be heard Tuesday include bills to prohibit the state from ever again capping special education enrollments and to increase funding for services for children with autism and kids with dyslexia. Another piece of leg-

islation would study the impact of standardized tests on students with disabilities.

They are the first of dozens of ideas to help students who were harmed by the cap, expand teacher training, boost transparency of special instructional programs, get more parent input in state policy making and put more focus on English language learners in special education, among other proposals.

Overall, lawmakers have filed 51 special education bills this year, including 16 written directly in response to the Chronicle’s findings. During the last legislative session, lawmakers filed 30 bills related to special ed.

“This is a major priority this session,” said state Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Humble, who chairs the House Public Education Committee and set Tuesday’s hearing. “These are our most vulnerable population of children, and we need to do everything in our power to make sure they get the resources to be successful in the classroom. So, we’re going to hear a lot of different ideas.”

Advocates are excited about the leadership of Huberty, who has a child with dyslexia, and believe they also will get support from Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican, both of whom have filed special edrelated bills.

Other members who have filed legislation include Republicans Charles Perry, a Lubbock senator, and Rick Miller, a Sugar Land representative; Democratic senators Jose Rodriguez of El Paso, Jose Menendez of San Antonio and Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville; and Democratic representatives Gene Wu of Houston and Diego Bernal of San Antonio.

No lawmaker or interest group has come out against any of the legislation, although the most powerful group of special education officials in the state, the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education, did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story. The Texas Education Agency, which set the de facto cap in 2004 and agreed to end it late last year, said in a statement that it does not take positions on legislative proposals.

Tapping federal funding

The biggest potential hurdle for the legislation, as with many services for vulnerable residents, is money. The Legislature is facing a budget shortfall due to a downturn in the oil and gas industry, and neither the Senate nor House included a major investment in special education in the budget plans they began moving last week.

Some advocacy groups think they have a solution to that problem, however. They have identified an untapped pot of federal money that could be used to increase special education services.

Tapping into that money could be less painful for Texas than if the state is forced by the federal government to act, the advocates said. U.S. Department of Education regulators have been investigating special education in Texas for the past four months and are planning to release a report by June 1, detailing their findings and required corrective actions.

In the meantime, the House Appropriations Committee has agreed to accept a budget rider to direct the state to use the untapped money, said Rachel Gandy of Disability Rights Texas, the state’s federally funded protection group for people with disabilities, which has been leading the lobbying effort in support of special ed legislation.

“It is imperative that lawmakers use this opportunity to set a new tone from the top that students with disabilities matter,” Gandy said. “These students have great potential, and evidencebased, common-sense policies can help them reach it.”

Disability Rights Texas and other groups are focusing their efforts on four different bills to prohibit the state from ever again capping enrollments, including House Bill 713, which was introduced by Wu. That one will be heard Tuesday, in addition to Miller’s House Bill 868, which would increase funding for dyslexia services.

Among the priority proposals that have yet to be scheduled for hearings are Senate Bill 927, by Rodriguez, and its companion, House Bill 3437, by Democrat Joe Moody of El Paso, which would create a “Special Education Recovery Program.” That program would require the school districts that have had the biggest declines in their special education numbers over the past decade to notify parents of the issue, re-evaluate students and provide services.

“It’s beyond doubt at this point that students across Texas were shortchanged on special education services owed them under federal law,” Rodriguez said. “This bill is simply intended to give them a second chance to receive adequate supports so they can be their most successful selves.”

A taste of looming debate

Another important proposal for advocates still awaiting a hearing is Senate Bill 1153, by Menendez, as well as its companion House Bill 3599, by Huberty. Those bills would increase transparency and parent notification regarding “Response to Intervention,” a collection of instructional strategies that many schools have been giving to disabled students in place of special education.

“Texas has used the Response to Intervention process to put off special education, and I don’t think it should be allowed anymore,” Menendez said.

The Legislature got a taste of the looming debate when the Senate Education Committee held a brief hearing Thursday on one of the bills to prohibit an enrollment cap.

Rodriguez pushed the proposal as a straightforward and important move, but two other senators took the conversation in different directions: Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, said he was concerned that schools have a financial incentive to put kids in special ed — an assertion that was disputed by the Texas Education Agency, which said that the funding that schools receive does not nearly cover the cost of educating students with special needs. Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said he was hoping to amend the bill to require the state to take action in cases when too many African-American boys are placed in special ed.

Eventually, the conversation returned to the cap with the testimony of a dozen people with disabilities, parents and advocates.

Amy Litzsinger, an Austin woman who is quadriplegic, stirred the crowd by talking about how she had graduated high school, got a master’s degree and then got a job helping the community.

“None of that would’ve been possible without special education,” Litzsinger said. “I just want to make sure that we eliminate the cap and other barriers so other children have access to services.”