- Hello, this is Dustin Rynders.
I am the supervising attorney of the education team
here at Disability Rights Texas,
and I wanted to check in with you
and thank our friends at the Houston Chronicle
and Houston Public Media
for really incredible follow-up joint investigation
into the status of special education in our state.
What they found is that even after a year
of the corrective action plan where the federal government
was expecting the Texas Education Agency
to make sure that students who should be eligible
for special education are finally identified and evaluated,
that we've only made 1 percentage point of improvement.
And so we still have hundreds of thousands of Texas students
who we would suspect as being eligible for special education
who are not receiving the services that they need.
That's very consistent with what we still see
here at Disability Rights Texas.
Unfortunately we're still in a time
where even though schools may be getting a little better
at responding to parental requests for evaluation,
they are not doing the proactive evaluation of children
who it's their responsibility to identify.
And a lot of the reason for that
is that the Texas Education Agency has dragged its feet
in the reforms that were required by the federal government
under our state's corrective action plan.
Specifically, the Chronicle and Houston Public Media found
that TEA had not yet provided resources
that they were supposed to to parents.
That's so important to us here at Disability Rights Texas
because we really try to do the best we can
to keep you all in this community informed of your rights
with the information on our website and in social media,
and in the trainings that we give in the community.
But we cannot do it alone.
Our state is too big.
There are too many communities that have unequal access
to the information that's out there,
so we ask for all of your help
in sharing the resources available on our website
and the knowledge that you have
with people who are less likely to have that information.
On the topic of getting evaluated for special ed,
it is so incumbent that we share the word
that families request the evaluations in writing
if they're still being denied.
And the forms on how to do that
are all available on our website at drtx.org.
TEA has also not provided the information that schools need.
Schools have so many questions
about how to better identify children with disabilities,
and one of the things that I thought was really important
about the media coverage this week
was that it showed that the Regional Service Center,
Region Four here in Houston, given responsibility,
special responsibility on Child Find,
this important issue of identifying all the children
who need special education
went to the Texas Education Agency
desperately seeking guidance on solutions
of how to get waiting list of children identified
when there just aren't enough evaluators.
I was really impressed to see that Region Four came to TEA
with a creative solution.
They said, you know some families have outside evaluations,
and already know about disability issues
that the children could be served with.
Our schools don't have enough psychologists.
Could we in some cases
go ahead and use those outside evaluations,
and start providing special ed services
so that children don't have to wait any longer
and struggle any longer,
knowing that we may have to do additional supplemental tests
on the school side at a later date?
And according to an email
from the Special Ed Director at Region Four,
she was told on the phone
by our hightest ranking special ed official in Texas,
Justin Porter, that they should not do that,
that he didn't want there to be any kind of jumping the gun
and providing services to children
until a full evaluation is done.
And he didn't offer any other solutions
for how we're gonna make sure that these children
get promptly identified and served.
And then even more shocking in that email correspondence
from the Region Four director to districts,
it was shared that he suggested
that there would be some form of grace period to districts
for not promptly identifying children.
You know, I was asked
what kind of grace period would be reasonable,
and I reminded people that this law was passed in 1975.
There's no room for grace at this point in time.
Children need served yesterday and they need served today.
In responding to this email, Justin Porter has claimed
that the Region Four Special Ed Director misspoke
and that he never gave the advice
that is contained in her email.
I wasn't on that call, and I don't know what was said,
but I'll tell you this; in my experience,
the regional service centers and districts
are truly hungry for solutions
to try to move forward in this process,
and TEA is not giving them what they need.
I have no reason; Ms. Gates who was in the job
at Region Four is now in retirement,
and I think it's somewhat unfair
that we've besmirched her reputation.
I have no reason to doubt that TEA did
what they've done for years, and suggest continued delay
and denial of districts,
not thinking that they would be caught,
not thinking that a public information request
would identify the email
where the advice was recalled to Texas districts.
We can't afford for TEA to give mixed messages.
It doesn't matter if it's an official communication
or a communication of any other sort,
it is important that TEA speak across the board
in every setting about the importance
of identifying children who need to be served.
TEA is now working on some resources for schools,
and we're pleased to see that,
but we still haven't seen any clear directives
on some of the most obvious solutions
to find the children who need identified.
For example, in our state we know
that there are many students currently served
by Section 504 and in dyslexia services.
Both groups of students, we already know have disabilities.
TEA should be speaking clearly to districts
that they need to review
all of the children in those programs,
and look for children who aren't succeeding academically,
who have been held back for a year,
who are being sent to disciplinary settings,
and do a folder review on any of those children
who are struggling to ask that question;
should this child be suspected
of needing special ed services?
Should we initiate evaluation?
I have yet to see anything from TEA
encouraging districts to take that very obvious step.
And so that's what we would request from them at this time.
I also think it's important to speak to y'all,
our disability community and other families
and concerned professionals, and ask that you help us.
We'll keep trying to keep the pressure on TEA
to do a better job of educating families about their rights.
But here at at Disability Rights Texas
we want your help too.
So the biggest thing you can do to help us at this point
is share these outstanding media articles,
share the Houston Public Media story,
the Houston Chronicle story.
Share the resources you find
on the Disability Rights Texas website,
and of course share the valuable knowledge
that many of you have as well.
Thank you for being in this fight with us for the long haul,
and making sure that we ensure that all Texas students
who need special education services
are afforded an opportunity to be evaluated
and served the way they deserve.