SENATE APPROVES “TRANSFORMATIVE” SPECIAL ED BILL
(AUSTIN) — Public schools will receive funding for special education services based on the type and intensity of service provided rather than the location in which it is provided, under a bill approved by the Senate on Monday afternoon. Bill author and Houston Senator Paul Bettencourt said this is significant progress for the three-quarters of a million Texas public school students who receive special education services. “We’re making a transformative step for special education across the state,” he said. “This is something that 775,000 children in the state could use now.”
The state’s journey on special education provisions has come a long way since 2004, said Education K-16 chair and Conroe Senator Brandon Creighton. That year, the state placed an arbitrary 8.5 percent cap on the number of students that could receive special ed services. This violated federal laws guaranteeing those services to students who needed it and was removed only in 2016. Creighton says that since then, efforts to address funding issues in special ed seemed like temporary band aids. “SB 568 feels like the first time we’ve had a real road map to closing some of those funding gaps in a lasting way,” said Creighton.
The current setting-based model determines funding according to where a student receives services: a special resource room, at home, at a facility, among other locations. The new bill would direct the state education agency to make an eight-tier intensity model that funds the services actually received. “The intensity model works because we can put the money exactly where it’s needed,” said Bettencourt. The bill requires transparency such that parents can ensure their children are receiving the services they are entitled to. The bill is backed with $700 million in funding that goes beyond what’s needed for the new intensity tiers. It also directs more funds towards transportation services, part of the cost of initial evaluations that determine what learning challenges a student has, grants to train and hire more teachers qualified in special education and dyslexia instruction, and other increases to special education services. The bill heads to the House for the second time in as many sessions; it failed to garner enough approval to reach the governor’s desk in 2023.
Tuesday, the Senate gave final approval to a bill that would reduce the number of election days, intended to save taxpayer funds and eliminate low-turnout elections that often bring out single-digit percentages of registered voters. “Texas has a whole lot of election dates,” said bill author and Mineola Senator Bryan Hughes. “It’s not that we vote on too many things but we have too many election days.” He pointed to Harris County as an example, saying that the county administered elections on seven different dates in 2022. In 2023, the May election date drew less than five percent of Harris County voters, compared to 43 percent in the 2022 November election. “Low turnout elections are costly and they’re resource intensive,” said Hughes. “Since each election has substantial fixed costs, the cost per vote increases significantly.” It also overburdens local election officials, he said, and makes it difficult to recruit enough volunteer workers necessary to conduct free and fair elections.
His bill, SB 1209, would reduce the number of election days significantly, with an emphasis on the November election. “Putting all these elections to the November time frame, as much as possible, saves taxpayers money,” he said. Under the bill, elections would always occur on Tuesdays and be limited to the November general election and March primary elections, allowing for a primary runoff, if needed, as well as any special election dates. The bill would get rid of the May uniform election date, which Hughes said will reduce the amount of time between the March primaries and any runoff elections to 70 days. That’s two weeks shorter than the gap between the primary and runoff last year. This bill also heads to the House for consideration.
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