COVID-19, HB3, Special Ed, etc.
Senate Panel Examines School Issues
The Senate Education Committee met (Nov. 13) in person to hear, virtually, nearly 4-1/2 hours of invited testimony by dozens of witnesses on interim charges that the committee must issue a report on for the upcoming legislative session. (webcast, meeting notice, witness list, handouts)
As expected, the pandemic and the responses by the TEA and schools to the health crisis permeated most of the committee’s business.
HB3 Unintended Consequences
The discussion included issues related to 2019’s HB3 school finance bill and what will be needed next session for a “HB3 clean-up bill” to resolve the bill’s unintended consequences.
An example of an “unintended consequence” cited during the committee’s discussion was the change to compensatory education funding.
Education Commissioner Mike Morath noted that HB3 resulted in what he said was a “warble” in the comp-ed funded allotments that results in less net education funding for districts with more than 700 students, and the funding declines start when a district has one more student over 700.
On the plus side, Morath noted that HB3 was responsible for a $2.7 billion net increase in school funding that would have not otherwise occurred under the prior law, while resulting in a $2.2 billion reduction in property taxes, and significant reductions in recapture payments by wealthy districts.
Unlike other states, Texas’ use of federal CARES Act pandemic funding to supplant, rather than supplement, state school funding that would have otherwise been reduced due to the pandemic helped Texas avoid cuts to education and teacher layoffs, Morath said.
Morath cited, among other things, the reading academy initiatives for K-3 educators, the “do not hire” registry, and the optional additional days of instruction for students in grades PK to 5, as among HB3’s successful reforms.
Josh Sanderson of the Equity Center asked that the Legislature not make too many changes to HB3 next session, and in sessions after that, especially in the areas of providing full formula funding. He said he has heard over and over from school officials that what they are looking for is stability and predictability in the school finance system.
But Sanderson did ask that Legislators “down the road” ensure that specific funding aspects of HB3 don’t become out of date.
Sanderson said he has also heard from districts that despite HB3’s changes to the transportation allotment, districts are still being shortchanged because, due to the pandemic, they are using their buses more — including by running more bus routes because there are fewer students on buses because of social distancing, and buses are being used to deliver meals to families.
Sanderson also asked that any additional CARES Act funding that might be appropriated by Congress be used to supplement, rather than supplant, state funding to districts, and suggested that CARES Act funding, or additional appropriated state dollars, could be used for extra costs incurred by districts, such as for transportation.
HB3906 — Student Assessment
Discussion also turned to the progress thus far in implementing 2019’s HB3906 that requires, among other things, that by School Year 2022-23, the student assessments consist of no more than 75 percent multiple choice questions and all assessments are administered online.
Morath said that the first report required by HB3906 on moving to all-online testing is still expected to be delivered by the Dec. 1, 2020, deadline set in the bill.
Senate Education Committee Chair Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, questioned Morath about pilot test questions being developed that might have more than one correct answer — something that Taylor said he had difficulty understanding as a concept, especially in math, which is considered to have only one correct answer.
Morath said these are examples of “multi-select” questions to provide assurances for the teacher that the student thoroughly understands the concept being taught.
Morath gave a “multi-select” example of a math question on fractions that could demonstrate the student’s complete understanding of the concept of “thirds” and “halves.” Note: At press time, the TEA was briefing the State Board of Education on HB3906. We’ll have a summary of the discussion in an upcoming issue.
Virtual and Remote Learning
Morath, TEA staff and superintendents outlined the steps taken by schools and the state in the areas of remote and virtual learning.
Most of the discussion centered on the efforts made by the state and local districts to provide for remote learning due to the pandemic, and issues related to the Texas Virtual School Network (TXVSN).
Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa noted that when the pandemic hit last spring, schools were ill prepared to deliver quality instruction full-on online. “We’ve learned a lot in nine months,” Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa asked that the emergency waivers granted to allow funding for students taught remotely and virtually be made permanent by the Legislature next session, instead of continuing to fund schools based on students actually attending in-person classes. He added that DISD, with the support of Apple, plans to open an online campus next August, whether the district receives state funding for it or not.
Morath briefed the committee about the massive purchases and distribution to schools of eLearning devices, Internet hotspots, etc., paid for by federal CARES Act funding to the state, which allowed districts to receive the technology much quicker than if they had to buy them on their own (due to pandemic-created shortages) — technology that the state, by buying in massive quantities, was able to purchase at lower costs.
But, committee members expressed concerns over testimony by superintendents and others about the need for tech support and the fact that not all families have access to high-speed Internet.
As for the TXVSN, superintendents asked for changes to the funding mechanism where schools would be funded for students taking the courses instead of being funded only after the student successfully completes and passes the course.
Special-Ed
Matt Montano, the TEA’s deputy commissioner for special populations and monitoring, walked the committee through the steps taken on the special-ed front since schools abruptly closed last spring due to the pandemic and the scramble to provide instruction and services to special-ed students and their parents as schools reopen.
Montano said something that he has heard that has been working well has been virtual admission, review and dismissal (ARD) committee meetings that has made it easier for parents to attend — an idea that might be considered to be made permanent once schools return to normality.
Montano also discussed the steps the TEA and state have been taking since the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) notified the agency, in a letter sent in January 2018, of significant problems resulting from the state’s failure to identify and provide services for students with disabilities.
Montano said the TEA is working on a response to the latest OSEP letter, sent last month, that cited concerns identified in a May 2019 visit by OSEP to 12 Texas school districts. (See TEN, Nov. 16.)
Representatives from the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education and Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) called for a change in special-ed funding based on the services rendered for special-ed students instead of where the student receives services.
Steve Aleman of DRTx cited TEA data that he said reflects that ISDs and charters collectively lost all contact with more than 9,400 students with disabilities when schools abruptly closed last spring due to the pandemic, and districts had “some contact” — but no formal engagement — with about 36,500 students with disabilities.
At the close of the spring semester, starting in May 2020, more than 18,300 students with disabilities were “lost,” having no further contact or engagement with schools, Aleman added.
Aleman touted a bill prefiled for the next session (SB89-Menéndez) that would require districts to review the individual education plans (IEP) of students with disabilities who were enrolled in School Years 2019-20 and 2020-21 to determine what services they have missed, and to assess their learning losses, as a result of the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Chair Taylor announced that the committee would not meet again until January.
