Feds Seek more Documentation from TEA
About Special-Ed Corrective Actions
The U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) special-ed division has asked the TEA for proof that it’s making progress to provide the appropriate special education to all students with disabilities, the Texas Tribune reported (Nov. 5).

The Oct. 19 letter from the USDE Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) was prompted by a Oct. 5 letter to OSEP by Education Commissioner Mike Morath asking why the TEA hadn’t heard anything from OSEP since OSEP made special-ed visits to 12 Texas schools in May 2019.

Morath’s letter outlined the steps the TEA had taken to comply with the directives identified by OSEP in 2018, and requested that OSEP end its scrutiny of the state’s special-ed programs and return Texas to the special-ed status of being “compliant.”

If not, OSEP should conduct another monitoring visit to Texas to collect more up-to-date info about the state’s special-ed programs, Morath said in his letter.

Among other things, Morath pointed to the fact that since the 2016-17 school year, the number of special-ed students served in Texas schools has grown from 112,000 to 588,829 students.

In brief, the 31-page letter from OSEP Director Laurie VanderPloeg stated that several areas of special-ed noncompliance were found during the May 2019 monitoring visits, and asked the TEA to provide additional information and documents that support the correction of the identified areas of noncompliance stemming from OSEP’s findings identified in its 2018 letter.

A few of the issues raised in VanderPloeg’s letter:

• The failure by the TEA to complete a document specifying the procedures to be used to monitor districts to ensure that students with disabilities are appropriately identified, evaluated and receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE).

• Interviews with teachers who said their districts were not implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Child Find and FAPE requirements.

• A number of concerns regarding a website to give parents info about their rights under IDEA. The posted materials will need “numerous revisions.”

• Continued confusion by school staff stemming from the state’s Dyslexia Handbook — that was revised as a result of OSEP’s original 2018 findings — regarding what’s required for the evaluation and identification of children with dyslexia as children with disabilities under IDEA.

  The letter says that school administrators erroneously told OSEP during the monitoring visit that in Texas:

  -- A student could not be found eligible for special education and related services under IDEA based on dyslexia — and that dyslexia is not considered a specific learning disability.

  -- Special education for children with dyslexia is only for children not making progress through the dyslexia program.