From the Houston Chronicle:
“The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Houston ISD after the state’s largest district began to centralize its special education department.
HISD announced Wednesday that students in some special education programs would move to 150 designated campuses next school year as the district relocates and consolidates classes, leaving parents scrambling and advocates concerned about the changes.
On Friday, the civil rights office said it would investigate whether HISD’s move violates federal laws barring discrimination against students with disabilities.
…The announcement of the federal investigation did not surprise Colleen Potts, supervising attorney for the education team at Disability Rights Texas.
‘I’m sure that parents are very stressed and worried about special education services continuing or changing, and any kind of discrimination on the part of HISD,’ Potts said. ‘Reporting that to the Office for Civil Rights is the correct way to go about making a discrimination complaint. And with a district as large as HISD, it doesn’t surprise me that they decided to investigate that.’
Potts said that centralizing services should not change the actual special education services for students, meaning students with individualized education programs should receive the same services in the same time frames from the same credentialed providers.
… ‘What the Office for Civil Rights is going to be investigating is not the provision of special education services, but rather any allegations of discrimination due to the students’ disability,’ Potts said. ‘So that would look like an exorbitant amount of time on a bus completely across town … Is that enough of a burden on that student to be discriminatory based on their disability?’
…Potts, with Disability Rights Texas, offered some advice for concerned parents. She said parents could first check that their child’s IEP and services will remain the same at their new campus next year. Parents could also speak to administrators and educators to assist students in transferring to a new campus.
‘I think parents should be encouraged to have those conversations about how to help their student, especially if it’s a student with a disability that doesn’t do well in change or unpredictable transitions, like moving to a whole new campus,’ Potts said. ‘Have those conversations and ask for some services to help transition that child into the new environment and into the new campus prior to the start of school.’ ”
Read the full story from the Houston Chronicle.