Needed services

The symbolism of the special education bill should be applauded, but it’s far from a fix.

Nicole Rechner had to fight every step of the way to get her son designated as eligible for special education services. Her son reported thoughts of suicide, spent nine days in a psychiatric hospital, and Rechner had to testify at a public hearing last fall before the Houston Independent School District would consider admitting Demarcus Fuller into special ed.

Rechner is not alone, as documented by the Chronicle in its groundbreaking “Denied” series. The reporting found that an arbitrary 8.5 percent cap — enacted by the Texas Education Agency — has kept Texas children with special needs from receiving needed services from public schools for more than a decade, while saving the state billions of dollars.

Although the TEA renounced the cap after the series was published, the Legislature went a step further this session and passed a bill that bans the state from arbitrarily limiting students from special ed services. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law last week.

The symbolism of the bill should be applauded, but it’s far from a fix. There are direct ways to deny services, such as a cap, but there are more subtle ways of denying services as well, such as inadequate funding.

Until the Legislature fixes the state’s public school financing system, students who enroll in special ed may continue to be denied the services they deserve.

Texas public schools serve the lowest percentage of special education students of any state in the country — around 8.5 percent — while the national average for special education students hovers around 13 percent. Now that Texas has abandoned its inhumane policy cap, in the upcoming years, school districts can expect to provide services to more children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, epilepsy and other special needs.

Special education students — including those with challenges such as traumatic brain injury and dyslexia — are expensive to educate. Texas spends around $9,282 per student, according to the National Center of Education Statistics 2012-2013 data. On average, educating a special ed child costs twice as much, and the federal government pays only one-fifth of the extra costs, leaving the rest to states and school districts — as reported in the “Denied” series.

As it is, schools already are struggling to provide a quality education for students. As property appraisal values rise, and along with them, local tax revenue, the state continues to shrink — and shirk — its responsibility, sending smaller and smaller portions of general revenues to public schools. Yet special education students need smaller class sizes so teachers can provide more individual attention, in addition to trained teachers to work with them.

Regardless of whether any changes to school finance law materialize out of the legislative session, it’s clear that public schools will face a growing funding shortfall. That will harm public education in general, but the greater harm will be to these children who need more intensive services.

Now that Texas has abandoned its cruel cap, we can hope that mothers like Rechner will no longer have to fight to get their children in special ed. But there’s no assurance that mothers of special needs students will not have to continue to fight to secure the services they deserve. There’s nothing special about a program that’s funded at such a low level that it fails to meet children’s needs.

Special education students need smaller class sizes so teachers can provide more individual attention, in addition to trained teachers to work with them.