Special Education & Schools

read time 6 minutes

Children's icon, a cluster of simplified figures, one smaller than the other two.

Our Position

Texas' public education system seems to face potential radical changes every session. As the state strives to best serve all students, the Texas Legislature must not leave students with disabilities behind by neglecting to support special education programs.

CTD fought hard against public school vouchers, which would take money away from public schools and present a host of potential problems for students with disabilities. CTD joined an army of opponents to vouchers, who managed to fend off voucher legislature during the regular session. However, there will almost certainly be a special session on this issue in the fall.

CTD opposed HB 3164 (Tepper), which did pass, and will prohibit Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices on public college campuses.

CTD opposed HB 1804 (Leo-Wilson), which did not pass, and would have restricted the content of educational materials.

The Latest

May 3, 2023: More on opposition to HB 1804, from our policy fellow J Canciglia and board member Maria Palacios in the Austin American-Statesman: Protests are a part of U.S. history. What story will Texas' textbooks tell?

February 16, 2023: read a statement by the Texas Legislative Education Equity Coalition (of which CTD is a member) Urging State Leaders to Oppose Private Voucher Schemes

April 27, 2023: Read our statement in opposition to HB 1804: House Bill Would Prevents Students with Disabilities from Learning their own History in Public Schools

February 6, 2023: read why Pastors for Texas Children are preparing for a fight on school choice (Newsweek)

Partners

Background

Special Education

Texas has a long history of denying special education services to kids with disabilities or shortchanging eligible students. Over the years, CTD and other advocates have led efforts to remove the illegal 8.5% enrollment cap, to expose the misuse of funding by the Texas Education Agency that compromised confidential student information, to protect early intervention programs, and to push back on attempts to exploit students with disabilities to open the door to vouchers. As schools continue to make gains in these areas, we must also focus our attention on transitioning to a service intensity funding formula to support students to learn in their least restrictive environments, and prioritize policies that protect the very basic right of all students to feel safe from physical, emotional, and mental harm at school.

CTD supports policies that provide school districts with guidance and the necessary resources to address the current barriers to access and inequities across the state.

Full Day Pre-K

CTD supports expanding access to full day Pre-K to include children eligible for special education or 504 supports.

Vouchers

CTD opposes the adoption of any voucher program or voucher-in-disguise initiative, and calls on Legislators to ensure that children with disabilities are adequately served in public and charter schools. CTD opposes any attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a vehicle to open the door to vouchers. Rather, the legislature must fix the systemic flaws in the special education system and sustain our public schools.

Federal law protects these students, but these protections do not extend to private school settings:

In addition, under an ESA system, families could face significant barriers to access such as:

Censorship in the Classroom

While not specific to special education, CTD opposes any legislation that would prohibit discussions or instruction on certain concepts related to race, gender, diversity, and discrimination in social studies, history, government, and civics courses in public schools. As members of and advocates for the disability community, we are wary of efforts by lawmakers to limit discussions of discrimination of any group in our nation's past and present.


Further Reading

Webinar: The Truth About Special Education Vouchers, recorded December 9, 2022, with our Jolene Sanders-Foster. Resources from the webinar:

Resources