From KERA:
“Texas lawmakers last year increased funding for disabled students after decades of underfunding. Now, the state must figure out what equipment, training and other services that $250 million will go toward.
The Texas Education Agency is surveying professionals who provide special education services to students for detailed information on what they do and how they do it.
…Steven Aleman, with the organization Disability Rights Texas, said this new approach to fund special education represents a sea change in how the state pays for disability services.
For example, Aleman said a deaf student might need captioning equipment in the classroom.
‘There’s no accounting for that extra expense in the current funding formula,’ he said. ‘With this (HB2) change, schools can enumerate, we need this equipment, we need the service… to allow this child who’s deaf the ability to see, live, what is being spoken to the classroom.’
He’s hopeful that ‘we have turned our back on those dark days’ of underfunded special education.”
Read the full story on the KERA website.