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The Texas Commission on Special Education Funding met on April 25 to hear from local school district’s Chief Financial Officers about SPED allotment. The Commission also heard from SPED Directors about implementing a new funding model and reviewed the suggestions the Special Education Committee made to the legislature. A video archive of this hearing can be found here.

 

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Members in attendance: Stacey Neal Combest (Chair), Sen. Bettencourt, Sen. Zaffirini, Rep. M. Gonzalez, Rep. Huberty, and Rep. Jetton

 

Opening Comments

  • Combest – Focusing on how effective or ineffective current funding is, biggest funding hurdles, and discussing findings from the funding committee
  • Need to address mental, emotional, and academic needs; students diagnosed with intellectual disabilities need the most support
  • 67% of special needs students are economically disadvantaged
  • Need to address the lack of staff trained to support special education students

 

Pam Sanchez, Lake Travis ISD CFO

  • Current Enrollment at 11,000 with 9.8% economically disadvantaged; 1,200 staff members
  • Special services staff available for students ages 3-21
  • Over 1,300 students in special education; 44% in secondary and 56% in elementary; 12% of student population
  • Growth rate of 42% on ADA scale; attendance funding instead of enrollment does not cover costs for special needs students but the need is still there
  • Current budget is $14 million; normal funding is 55% over the original allotment due to need for contracting services, evaluations, and other things
  • This pulls away from other students; currently short 10 special need educators and 26 paraprofessionals
  • Evaluations have grown from 260 to 340 due to referrals; need funding for extended summary program which include these evaluations
  • Asks commission to allocate funds to schools for evaluations which would help alleviate funding through expensive contractors
  • Huberty – What is average SPED kids’ attendance?
    • Do not know SPED specific but 95% for whole school and were currently at 92% this year
  • Huberty – Typically SPED is less than average; it appears that expense is double your allotment
    • Total budget is $100 million; 15% on SPED but only receiving 8% from the state
  • Combest – What is average cost of evaluation
    • $1,500 – $2,500 each but it varies
  • Gonzalez – How many times does the evaluation have to be recompleted?
    • Every three years but more frequently in some cases

 

Christopher Smith, Katy ISD CFO

  • Average 3.8% growth per year; 88,000 students this summer now at 95,000 students
  • 13.5% of students are SPED; grows 10.5% per year for the last five years
  • Spending almost double the allotment given to us on SPED; staffing is critically short especially with paraprofessionals
  • SPED teaching requires more training; we need to be able to compensate them as such
  • When a parent disagrees with evaluation, they can be reevaluated on the district expense; spent $65 thousand on this currently
  • Parents can file a due process lawsuit for any offense which places legal expenses on the district; staff has to testify and produce artifacts which takes away time from the students
  • 4,572 evaluations and $2.8 million cost to the district
  • Mainstream students receive same funding but require less things than SPED student; please consider stipends, and legal expenses
  • Zaffirini – You wrote that some equipment need form SPED students costs around $30,000 per student is this for physical or intellectual disabilities
    • Both but mostly physical disabilities
  • Jetton – How much are you spending on initial evaluations?
    • $2.9 million in total; $135 an hour for the 3 specialists
  • Huberty – What is total SPED spend per year
    • $135 million and we were given $76 million
  • Huberty – Where is the majority of the money?
    • Spending is throughout its entirety; some life skill programs are very expensive, and the funding weight does not reflect the time and need
  • Huberty – What percent of this is your total budget
    • Total is $900 million; 15% of budget on SPED
  • Huberty – How much of the staff is not SPED certified
    • I do not know

 

Johnny Hill, Plano ISD CFO

  • Plano serves 50,000 students with 12.6% SPED; 16% qualify as English learners and 34% are economically disadvantaged
  • Tells anecdotal story about his autistic nephew and members in his family that have taught SPED classes
  • The costs of special education are more competitive in urban areas; this is why districts are supplementing SPED budgets with general budgets
  • Provided commission with total number of students, enrollment, budget, and assessment information
  • Costs $3-4,000 for a single evaluation
  • These costs have risen for three reasons; no inflationary factor in formula, increase of identification, and an outdated funding model that does not open to feedback or review
  • Legislators cleaned up a lot of formulas with HB 3; HB 3 still did not include inflammatory adjustment
  • Districts are incentivizing SPED employees because there is such a demand; if positions aren’t filled districts have to contract outside services with is 3 or 4x’s more than a staffer
  • Two consequences of SPED education improvement in Texas; cost increase in assessment, naturally bottleneck as assessments are performed and staffing stays low
  • Would like a long-term solution to funding, cost service approach
  • This will take a while because of rural and urban districts and different needs
  • Here are short term solutions; direct funding via stipends for staff, reimburse districts for assessments, adjust retire rehire penalties, and increase funding cap from $10 million to $50 million
  • Zaffirini – What implementation timeline would you need for your recommendations
    • The short term could be almost immediate, and the long-term solution would need studying
  • Huberty – How would 1.3 weight to 1.5 weight on each student
    • It would be additional .15x to the basic allotment; $974 extra per day
  • Betancourt – Lake Travis showed an assessment is anywhere from $2-3,000 but you said $3-4,000; how did you get that number
    • It is the total time of payment for employees and the evaluation itself
  • Betancourt – How many people are needed for this evaluation?
    • I have been using 3 specialists at $30/hour for $30 hours
  • Betancourt – Can you write up your formula for this necessity and send it to the commission
    • Yes

 

Flor Ayala, Laredo ISD CFO

  • Testifying in support of funding reform
  • Currently serving 20,000 students with declining attendance; SPED enrollment is 1,965 and make up 10% of total enrollment
  • SPED ADA is 90%; 96.5% of all students are considered economically disadvantaged and 98.18% of SPED students are economically disadvantaged
  • Struggles to provide students with technology and assessments similar to other districts
  • Wants committee to explore chaining the weights and reconsider the 1:1 staff to SPED ration
  • Zaffirini – What impact does the language have on your budget and personnel?
    • Struggling to find the staff to take care of the 1:1 ratio; offer a $4,000 stipend to these teachers
    • We use ASL in school, but it is a disadvantage because almost all of the students are bilingual
  • Huberty – What are you supplementing for SPED?
    • We received around $14.6 million, and we are spending $18 million
  • Huberty – What about transportation costs?
    • $107,000 allotted but we spent $1.6 million
  • Huberty – Asks whole panel about transportation costs?
    • Whole panel agrees to send that information
  • Zaffrini – What is the average cost of a SPED student in Laredo
    • About $9,100

 

Jeffery Orozco, Elgin ISD CFO

  • Steadily growing with enrollment of 5100 students; over 70% economically disadvantaged with 800 staff members
  • Spend student enrollment is 626; 12.5% of total enrollment
  • Small district that does not have a lot of services to tend to SPED needs
  • Texas is required to spend 52% of SPED allotment; spent over 100% of allotment on unallotted costs
  • Weighted funding allows for Speech pathologist, and behavioral specialists; we are having to contract outwardly
  • Elgin ISD to maximize other funds; received federal funds
  • Need support to fill positions; we need extra funding to support the extra needs beyond just ADA
  • Gonzalez – HB 3 was transformative for SPED; what would be the first priority?
    • Hill – More complicated than just throwing money at it; have to match up the cost of the services with the allotment
    • Texas is a complicated state because there is rural and suburb; it needs to be thoroughly studied
  • Gonzalez – Been in legislature for 10 years and we have been working with this for a long time; would love for us to land at practical solutions to make transformative shifts
  • Huberty – What is the MOE situation
    • Orozco – We have been able to pass test 1 and 2; but as student enrollment increases it is hard to pass test 3 and 4
    • Smith – Same trend happens in Katy too
    • Ayala – This happened to Laredo as well; we are also probably not going to make MOE again and we are looking for an exception
  • Gonzalez – On the MOE is staff the biggest problem
    • Orozco – Staffing is 80-85% of the budget so without full staff we can’t use the budget

 

Thelissa Edwards, SPED Director Spring ISD

  • Strategic district plan that focuses on SPED outcomes, every student, every teacher, ever day
  • Developed a leadership definition and how initiatives are achieved
  • District located in North Houston, In significant competition with surrounding districts
  • Serve over 33,000 students, 32 campuses, 5,200 employees
  • 55% bilingual, 84% are considered economically disadvantaged, 69% of population is title I
  • SPED represent 10% of population; variety of disability categories with the highest being autism and learning disabilities
  • 78% of students are able to be supported through general education; still could need other supports
  • Noticed an increase in SPED enrollments, transfers, assessments, and teacher vacancies
  • Have realized to address vacancies we had to recognize the budgetary increase are 3xs the cost of a vacancy because we have to outwardly contract
  • Would like to fund on service intensity and student enrollment; allocate funding to support recruitment, training, and retention of SPED staff
  • Zaffirini – You recommend service intensity formula; what challenges would this bring
    • It would be a challenge to tier that process and how to detriment when a service is rendered; however, there is an awareness that we aren’t capturing the needs of the students
  • Zaffirini – What tiers would you want to recommend?
    • Important to base it on the level of service needed; mild, moderate, or severe identification as a team
    • Want to be clear that just because a student might have multiple disabilities does not mean they are receiving services for both; we have to look at the individual needs of each student to identify them
  • Gonzalez – Heard that the funding formula is failing; does it impact how you do the work?
    • Current funding does not meet the needs, our district is committed to students; a better model would help us to support them even more
  • Jetton – Some of the MDRs have fallen behind; do you see those needing to be made up once staffing is back?
    • It is a difficult staffing position; We need teachers, administrators, assessment staff etc.

 

 

Monty Parker, Special Services Director Allen ISD

  • District has 22,000 students total with 3,100 SPED students
  • Federal law is clear on serving all SPED students; there are many aspects to this law in terms of funding
  • Only passed part 1 and 2 of MOE; staffing creating and issue
  • Struggling to pay staffers; can’t pay good employees well and staff is leaving left and right
  • Spending $22 million on SPED with state contribution around $10 million
  • In support of a flat reimbursement model however there is something more productive about tiers
  • Dyslexia evaluations are also increasing and need to reflect in the budget
  • Allen ISD has reached 1500 evaluations yearly and only a small amount of federal funding can be used
  • Also, similar issues with transportation that others have expressed
  • Jetton – What is the requirement of the assessment
    • On a federal level there are certain statutory standards we have to fulfill
  • Huberty – Was the additional weight for dyslexia not enough
    • IT was not enough; we need 9 dyslexia therapists
  • Huberty – What is the total population of students with dyslexia
    • 1,000 students; 5% of all students
  • Huberty – Where do you think the weight should be?
    • Want to look into more because of specific needs
  • Huberty – Seems like .1 is not the right number and we would love to get that right
  • Gonzalez  – 80% of SPED students are in mainstream educations; can you explain this difference?
    • To assume a student in a mainstream environment and a full time SPED student are the same is wrong
    • Beyond academic needs there are physical and health needs unlike mainstream classroom

 

Amanda Sanchez – SPED Director San Elizario ISD

  • 99.5% Hispanic, 99.9% economically disadvantaged, 57.2% limited English, 74.4% at risk of dropout, 13.7% SPED
  • 3,200 students with 440 SPED students; median family income is $20,000
  • SPED budget is $3 million and spent above it; federal funding goes to personnel
  • Every year experiencing declining enrolment
  • Believe dyslexia weight is too low; only allows for one therapist
  • Opening in early childhood special education which is a big impact to a small school; lots of vacancies coming up next year
  • Shortages of bus drivers; pool for these higher up specialties is small in rural counties
  • Evaluation can range from $1,000-$3,000 depending on the disability
  • Need to address mental health; we have several students on stay-at-home order and the students that did return are highly anxious
  • SPED is underfunded; need to provide incentives to encourage people
  • Given our location and low budget we are falling behind our competition and charter schools\
  • Gonzalez  – Easy to get lost in the numbers; it is about helping children reach their full potential
  • Want to highlight to commission how things work in smaller districts; they are offering school support, family support and community support
    • I wish we could have more specialists, but we can’t afford them; we have councilors, but we work within our means

 

Kristen McGuire, Director of Governmental Relations at TCASE

  • Chair of Special Education committee; 14 different stakeholders composed of students, educators, parents, and others
  • COVID messed up some meetings, but a sold report was pulled together
  • Established committee goals first; how the state could improve funding via service intensity, target resources, simplify new funding model, provide necessary supports, considering the growing cost of enrollment and expenses
  • Discussed barriers to SPED; SPED is a service not a straight placement, structural model does not align with services, contact hour limits, related services contracts and shortages, and old formula that is outdated
  • Committee consideration suggestions
  • Consider the data we collect; what percent of the day is used to provide instructional time
  • Federal data is collected by TEA on how much time is spent in the classroom
  • Consider using this percentage of time concept to refer to special education services
  • Average per people eligibility through federal funding that would allow for SPED students to be considered high cost
  • High-cost eligibility student has to be 3x’s the states APA; not calculated in regard to disability status
  • Reduce the use of short-term disability grants; specifically grants that are targeted towards on disability
  • Funding based on enrolment with a simplified calculation system
  • Parents are critical partners in public school education; parents need to keep their rights
  • Dyslexia allotment is one of the allotments that is based on enrolment
  • Shortage of everyone in the education system; incentivize SPED roles where possible
  • Zaffirini – Are these suggestions that were made to the legislature?
    • Yes, they were considered but because there were so many COVID priorities they ran out of time
  • Under your suggestions, would you propose a limitation to contact hours
    • There would be no contact hours
  • You recommended adopting a matrix or tiered approach; what is the advantage of each
    • Tiered system is easier to implement; a matrix will take longer unless we take Florida’s model
  • What recommendations do you have for SPED teacher training?
    • We need to review the training programs we have now, especially with higher education
    • Seeing where schools can be flexible without compromising skill, think loan reimbursement or tuition grants
  • What are the top 3 recommendations you have?
    • Incentivize the positions, take away current funding model, implement one of the 2 suggestions I previously talked about
  • Huberty – What do you think these changes cost?
    • We were looking at $2 or $3 billion
  • How short are you on SPED teachers?
    • Paraprofessionals and educators a huge shortage; no specific numbers
  • What do you think Texas is missing in funding dyslexic?
    • We aren’t incorporating them right into SPED and took a little late action
  • How many specific recommendations did you make?

 

Edward O’Neal, TEA

  • Talking about two types of funds today residential and high-cost funds
  • Off-campus funds such as ART meetings that are picked with attention to specific student needs
  • Day treatment or residential treatment involves deciding whether a student should be on campus
  • Want to see progression of services and a progression of intervention; is contract reflecting services correctly
  • We cannot override district decisions we just provide the funds
  • High-cost funds are isolated at 5%; state does not have authority to regulate funds to residential treatment
  • Funding for no public residentials; when a district receives funding, they have to hold 25% in reserves
  • We have huge ranges for district allotments because of varying district sizes
  • Huberty – Where is the $400,000 coming for placement?
    • We have a facility that is $1,000/day; we cannot tell a district that they can’t use certain placements, but we can tell them it is non-competitive
  • O’Neal – It is dependent on disability for example there are about 334 students last year that cost $40 million on their own
  • Combest – Do you think this is driven by need?
    • Yes, we work to get more approved but there are only 10 facilities for residential treatment and 15 day of treatment centers
  • What kind of regulations apply to these facilities?
    • Have to follow residential guidelines; Texas code of education applies to students still because it is being played for by the district
  • O’Neal – Outliers are what kill us; 75% of day treatment fall under 64,000
  • Combest – What would happen without these facilities
    • Most likely looking at hospitalization where children cannot be educated
  • Huberty – You want regulatory authority; what are you specifically looking for from us?
    • When we look at rates, we also look at what includes counseling
    • Illinois only reimburses a certain amount of money from treatment centers
    • Think that is a better solution that what Texas has because there is no cap on spending for these outliers
  • Zaffirini – Who determines the placement; are any from court orders?
    • ARD committee of administrations and parents
    • If a due process makes a placement that is due process, and we have no authority
  • O’Neal – The high-cost fund is capped and we cannot adjust it
  • Huberty – How much more needs to be spent to get off the cap; also, what is your MOE
    • We only had around 100 LEAs apply; don’t know why more don’t apply
    • Lopez – It terms of financial support it will be close but I will give you numbers when I’m back to the office