- More special education funding cuts in Texas?
Here are some important things parents need to know.
My name is Tabitha Dwyer
and I'm an attorney on the education team
at Disability Rights Texas.
For various reasons, the feds are cutting funds
allotted to Texas public schools
for students with disabilities
who receive special health and related services.
The acronym you may have heard for these services is SHARS.
SHARS includes things like nursing services,
personal care services, and occupational therapy.
Here are three things you should know
if your student is affected.
Number one, even if there are funding issues
in your district, your student is still entitled
to receive necessary health-related services at school.
Secondly, if your student is denied those services,
make sure your disagreement with a denial
is documented on paper at an ARD meeting.
And third, there are things you can do
if your student is denied those services,
including requesting an independent education evaluation,
filing a TEA complaint,
requesting mediation, or filing for due process
and invoking stay put,
which means the school must keep your student
in their current services during the appeal process.
To help you with all of this,
we have created a new resource on our website
with these tips and more, including background
as to why this is happening.
Get the resource at www.DRTx.org/SHARS.
And as always, we are here to help.
To request our services,
call Disability Rights Texas
at 1-800-252-9108
or apply online at intake.DRTx.org.
And see the comments for how to contact us by ASL video.