Hiring freeze thaws for 5 agencies
Abbott lifts moratorium at School for the Deaf, mental hospitals; weighs other waiver requests.
Gov. Greg Abbott has granted at least five state agencies a reprieve from a statewide hiring freeze he enacted last month, easing concerns that some of the most vulnerable Texans could go without services in the coming months.
The state-supported living centers that serve people with intellectual disabilities, state hospitals that serve people with mental health issues, the Texas School for the Deaf, the state parks division and the Texas Military Department have been given the OK to fill critical positions, officials told the American-Statesman on Friday.
Abbott is still assessing waiver requests from at least a dozen other agencies.
“All of our waiver requests are critical to our mission of providing a quality learning and living environment for our students,” said Texas School for the Deaf Superintendent Claire Bugen.
“Our situation here at TSD is further complicated by the fact that not only are we providing public education, but we are doing so for a 100 percent population of students with disabilities, the vast majority of whose services are mandated by federal law under the Individuals with Disabilities (Education) Act.”
In an effort to save the state $200 million amid a budget shortfall, Abbott announced last month a prohibition on hiring across state government, with the exception of law enforcement, criminal justice and child protection, until the next fiscal year, which starts Sept. 1.
Amid sluggish oil and gas prices, state revenue has fallen short of expectations. The state is projected to finish the budget cycle with about $1.5 billion unspent, and much of that could be used up in a supplemental budget, a stop-gap measure to plug holes in the budget.
“The governor’s directive exempts from the hiring freeze ‘positions that have a direct impact on public safety.’ These positions were all determined to fit that criteria and were therefore granted a waiver,” the governor’s spokesman, John Wittman, said of the reprieve given to the five agencies.
At least 20 state departments, including the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Racing Commission and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, have submitted requests to fill positions before Sept. 1.
Additionally, the Department of Family and Protective Services has requested a waiver to hire investigators, supervisors, specialists and other positions in the unit that oversees adult abuse cases.
For some of these agencies, not filling critical positions could put them at risk of lawsuits or federal investigations, according to agency officials.
This month, the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warning that a failure to fill jobs at the state-supported living centers — already coping with high turnover — would put the facilities “on course to rapidly reach crisis levels of understaffing.”
Bugen said that not providing services could have opened the School for the Deaf to legal action.
The school, in South Austin, serves 580 students from across the state who are deaf, hard of hearing and have additional disabilities. The school serves an additional 500 or so children and parents through other programs, such as early childhood education and summer camps. Abbott approved the school’s request to hire at least 52 employees that school officials say are needed for the rest of this and next school year.
The positions include about two dozen teachers, an audiologist, a physical therapist, dorm supervisors and bus drivers.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department was granted permission to hire 270 fulltime, part-time and seasonal positions in the state parks division, including cooks, lifeguards, park police and superintendents.
Among the entities awaiting word on requests to fill positions is the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, also required to provide services under federal disability law.
The school is seeking permission to hire an estimated 11 teachers for next school year, Superintendent Bill Daugherty said.
The school also would like to hire nine teachers, two teacher’s aides and seven dorm supervisors for a summer program that lets children who aren’t enrolled in the school get caught up on academics and learn job skills and independent living skills.
“Because visual impairment is such a low-incidence disability — 0.002 percent — the summer program also offers an opportunity for students who are blind, visually impaired or deaf-blind, to be around other students who share similar experiences, allowing them to learn from each other,” Daugherty said.
He said that 321 children participated in last year’s summer program.