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.
TEA Deputy Commissioner Kristin McGuire said a portion of House Bill 2, the state’s recent education funding measure, is designed to improve special education delivery by “looking at those special ed services that the child is receiving to determine how can we more efficiently and better cover the cost of educating students with disabilities.”
The TEA is asking providers what training and certifications they need, equipment used to help disabled students, and the frequency of services provided, to name just a few elements of special education. These details were never sought before, let alone used to determine funding.
The TEA wants surveys done by the first week of February.
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.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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