Special ed makes big strides in Capitol
Following Chronicle series, state now barred from imposing a cap, but more work remains
AUSTIN — It took thoughts of suicide, nine days in a psychiatric hospital and his mother’s pleas at a public hearing last fall for the Houston Independent School District to consider admitting Demarcus Fuller into special education.
After he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the district screened him and agreed he qualified for the coveted services that would give him personalized help, including access to a counselor and a special seat on the bus. Persuading his school to actually provide those services was another story, his mother said.
“They pretty much fought us at every step,” said Nicole Rechner. His magnet school pushed her to take Demarcus home early multiple times a week and lacked a staff member who could de-escalate the 12-year-old’s outbursts, she said. “The school was fighting every step.”
As Rechner spent the months at war with Demarcus’ school for services, lawmakers at the Texas Capitol have been mulling how to help students with disabilities in light of a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation revealing the state forced schools to turn away tens of thousands of students who needed special education.
The investigation found the
Texas Education Agency set a de facto 8.5 percent cap on the number of children who could receive special education, far below the national average of 13 percent of students receiving accommodations to help children overcome
mental, physical or learning disabilities. The arbitrary limit, made without consulting lawmakers, federal officials or the public, made Texas the only state with a benchmark and the hardest place in the country to seek special education.
Many families denied access to special education for their children decided to leave the state or switch schools in order to get services guaranteed by federal law.
Now, the governor has signed a bill, SB 160, banning, once and for all, any limits on the number of students enrolled in special education.
In the waning days of the legislative session, advocates for special ed also are pushing other key bills to ensure children who were refused services or who may need them in the future can get the help they need.
“This whole last year has been the biggest year in Texas special ed in a generation,” said Steven Aleman, a policy specialist for Disability Rights Texas, while sitting in the House gallery moments after the chamber approved one such bill.
The biggest victory for families involved in special education was the passage of Senate Bill 160, which would bar the state from imposing a cap or benchmark on the number of students a school or district can enroll in special education. Passed unanimously in both chambers, he signed the bill Sunday.
Overlooked kids
Senate Bill 1153 would minimize a child’s chances of getting overlooked for special education. As schools and districts struggled to adhere to the state’s cap, schools would park struggling students in a Response to Intervention program that would offer some services, such as a reading specialist, but often keep students from special education screening, the investigation found.
If the bill becomes law, educators would have to notify parents they’ve entered their children into so-called RTI programs and explain what kind of intervention they have planned and for how long. The notice, advocates say, would serve as a red flag to parents to let them know their child may have a disability and allow them to consider whether more screenings are needed. Schools and districts are required to screen children for special education upon parents’ requests, but under the cap, many have turned parents away or have played down parents’ options.
The legislation, which was one vote away from passage as of Friday, also requires the state to track the number of students who are in RTI, which will help identify which schools and districts are housing students with disabilities there instead of advancing children with more dire needs to special education screenings.
Advocates are pleased with the success of these two measures, but they worry a third key bill will die in the session that ends May 29.
House Bill 3437 would have required the state to reach out to students who had been denied services under the state’s cap. Lawmakers refused to go along with that but instead agreed to water down the bill to require the state send a letter to all parents declaring that the cap was a thing of the past and outlining how to get students screened for special education.
That idea won unanimous approval in the House Public Education Committee but fell victim to political gamesmanship earlier this month in the so-called “Mother’s Day massacre” when conservative Republicans rejected a slew of non-controversial bills in retaliation against the House speaker just before Mother’s Day. The Senate Education Committee has heard the bill but has yet to vote on it.
“Every day that goes by at this point just means its prospects are dropping dramatically, because the matter of time,” said Aleman.
‘More empathy’
Legislative leaders may be called back for a special session, but only the governor can set the agenda, which is unlikely to include special education.
The tenor of conversation about special education has changed under the pink dome this session, advocates say, noting that lawmakers have been receptive to their ideas, even if they haven’t approved them all.
Access to special education is personal to Chris Massey. A lobbyist and public policy specialist with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, he has a son in first grade with Down syndrome. His name is Matthew.
“I think there’s more empathy,” he said, noting he once had to bring Matthew with him to a hearing for a few hours and senators took a liking to him.
He and other advocates followed some 40 bills this year seeking to reform, beef up training, spend more money and collect more data on special education or children with disabilities. Most won’t pass this session. But that’s OK, he said, because this year has warmed lawmakers up to ideas for reforming special education.
“There has never been the amount, the diversity — the ‘variety’ I guess is a better word — of special ed bills to my knowledge ever in the Texas Legislature,” he said.
Special education issues have a receptive audience this year in the House, where the newly appointed Public Education Committee chairman, Dan Huberty, is the father of a son with dyslexia, whom he talks about often. The Republican from Humble is in a battle with the Senate over House Bill 21, a measure that would change how the state funds education, including spending more money on children with dyslexia and autism.
The Senate has other ideas. After failing to gain support for a school choice measure allowing parents to send their children to private school using public funding, the chamber narrowed the plan to students who have disabilities.
That move heightened tensions with the House, where most members are opposed to so-called school voucher plans, in part because it would take money from public schools or because their constituents don’t want them. Disability advocates say they aren’t taking a position on the bill but said few private schools want or can provide services the public schools are required to survive.
If the House refused to approve the vouchers, money for dyslexia, autism and a revamp of the state’s school funding will die until lawmakers come back in 2019.
“It’s this little thing,” said Chairman Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican who controls the Senate Education Committee. “This is not a choice that hurts anybody else’s choice.”
Transfer helps
HISD said it’s working to improve special education services. The Board of Education commissioned a review of its special ed program, and the department is under new leadership amid revelations HISD admitted 7.3 percent of students into special ed.
Demarcus changed schools anyway, but he didn’t need a voucher.
When the Chronicle first spoke with him and his mother last fall, Rechner had thought sending him to Baylor College of Medicine Academy would be good for him since he wanted to work in a crime lab. But he hated going to school and said he felt like they didn’t want him there.
Once, he ran out of the school, and security guards had to chase after him. Asked what he wanted to be, he once said “homeless.”
In March, his mother transferred him to Alexander Hamilton Middle School, where he is now meeting with a counselor every day. It’s another school within HISD, and it works better for Demarcus, Rechner said. He does yoga there and meets every day with a counselor. When he gets upset, someone walks with him in the hall until he calms down.
Demarcus was sick once, she said, and it was the only time the school has called his mom to pick him up.