Gov. Abbott Directs TEA To Take Action On Special Education

While federal officials have provided no definitive timeline for TEA, Gov. Greg Abbott has called for an initial corrective action plan draft within the next seven days…

The U.S. Department of Education released Thursday the findings of monitoring activities relating to Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

This comes after the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education initiated monitoring following reports about the significant decline in the number of children identified as children with disabilities eligible for special education and related services in Texas. 

The monitoring report lists three specific areas in which TEA failed to comply with Federal law: 

– To ensure that all children with disabilities residing in Texas who are in need of special education and related services were identified, located and evaluated, regardless of the severity of their disability, as required by IDEA. 

– To ensure that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) was made available to all children with disabilities residing in Texas’s mandated age ranges (ages 3 through 21), as required by IDEA. 

– To fulfill its general supervisory and monitoring responsibilities as required by IDEA and to ensure that independent school districts throughout Texas properly implemented the IDEA’s child find and FAPE requirements. 

Read OSEP’s full monitoring report here. 

While federal officials have provided no definitive timeline for TEA, Gov. Greg Abbott has called for an initial corrective action plan draft within the next seven days. 

Following the completion of the initial plan, it will be shared with representatives of parent groups and special education advocacy groups, as well as administrators and educators throughout the state. Additionally, Abbott has asked TEA to develop potential legislative recommendations that will help ensure local school districts are in compliance with all federal and state laws regarding special education. 

Read the letter from Gov. Abbott regarding the directive on special education in Texas here and (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath’s response here.