SPECIAL ED: Senate OKs bill banning state from imposing limits on student services
AUSTIN — The Texas Senate moved Wednesday to ban state officials from ever again imposing a cap on the percentage of students allowed to receive special education services.
The chamber voted unanimously in favor of Senate Bill 160, putting the legislation just one step away from the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott, who already has indicated his support of the measure.
That last step, a vote on the floor of the Texas House, is expected to take place soon.
The legislation was filed in response to “Denied,” a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation that exposed the state’s decade-old cap and revealed that it had denied services like tutoring and therapy to tens of thousands of children with disabilities.
As a result of the arbitrary
2004 policy, which the Texas Education Agency enacted while facing a $1.1 billion state budget cut and without notifying lawmakers, federal officials or the public, Texas now provides special education services to the lowest percentage of any state in the country — by far.
Now, with the Senate passage of Senate Bill 160, the state might be able to erase that ugly distinction, according to the proposal’s sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso.
“Parents have a right to have their child evaluated for special education services, and to have a place at the table when schools design appropriate accommodations,” Rodriguez said in a statement after the Senate vote. “Children deserve our best efforts to provide a quality education.”
In all, 16 bills were filed in response to the Chronicle investigation. Senate Bill 160 is the first to receive approval by a full chamber. The other proposals are at various stages in the process; several have not yet gotten a hearing.
Disability Rights Texas, the advocacy group that was the first to discover the cap, a decade after it was implemented, said in a statement Tuesday that the Legislature’s efforts would help many kids to reach their potential.
“Countless children with disabilities in our state will have a fairer chance at completing their education, finding gainful employment, and living independently,” the group said.